(Aug. 10, 2017) The Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors left a July 28 meeting with the expectation that an electronic vote would hand over renovations at the country club to Willow Construction LLC by the first week of August.
But this week, board President Dave Stevens said things had become more complicated and that a decision would almost certainly be deferred to the next board of directors after the Aug. 12 election results are announced.
The OPA’s Public Works Department had been working on the renovations, but its removal of fire safety systems caused a host of problems with the county fire marshal.
During the July 28 meeting, interim General Manager Brett Hill asked the directors to approve a $536,000 contract with Willow to take over the project entirely. The Easton-based company handled the recent renovations of the Ocean Pines beach club.
Several directors said this was the first they had heard about the issues and asked for more time, and the board members agreed to decide by the first week of August.
On Tuesday, Stevens said he sent an updated report to the board, but had yet to receive a reply.
“Some of the premises upon which we were working on just turned out not to be true,” Stevens said. “One of the things that Brett suggested, because at that point in time we had no design drawings, [was] that it be turned over to Willow.
“As it turns out, at this point in time, we at least have a set of mechanical drawings and, I believe but I have not confirmed, that we have the engineering drawings as well,” he added.
Stevens said he thought the project was still on track, although he added, “it’s on a slightly different track than I think everybody imagined.”
“We’re doing something which is very comparable to what was done at the beach club,” he said. “We believe that’s about the most efficient way we can get it done at a reasonable timeframe.”
As he sees it, Ocean Pines would enter into an agreement to let Willow run the preconstruction phase as a general contractor. He said the company would take design drawings developed by other companies and public works and seek individual bids, for services from elections, plumbers and others, and “competitively bid the components” of the project.
Stevens said those individual components would not have to come back to the board for approval.
“What will have to come back to the board after this preconstruction phase is we’ll get a not-to-exceed type bid from Willow and the board will have to approve that and the corresponding design,” Stevens said. “It’s a different approach, but it’s the only approach that’ll get it done in a reasonable timeframe.”
He said the primary urgency was not the threat of fines or closing the facility, but rather the start of parallel renovations at the administration building.
The plan was to expand the footprint of the police quarters inside the administration building by moving all of the meeting spaces out of there into the country club. Now, one project is holding up the start of the other.
“If we don’t have a place to put all the people, then we’ll just have to postpone that – for a long time,” Stevens said.
The board originally budgeted $417,000 for the renovations and Hill came back with his own $536,000 proposal with Willow. Now, Stevens said, the price could be significantly different.
“I think so, but I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll probably find out within the next few weeks, and I have to wait to hear back from the rest of the board.”
Stevens said he hoped to get representatives from Sure Fire Protection Inc., a Salisbury company, and Willow together soon to go over the reinstallation of the sprinkler systems.
“When we put them back, they’re not going to have to come down again – they’ll stay there. They’re not going to interfere with the construction,” Stevens said. “I feel comfortable with the fire marshal conversation. They were upset about us not doing things quite right, but on the other hand they also expressed a real willingness and [understanding] … that’s what I got out of it.”
He said it was within Hill’s authority as the general manager to authorize preconstruction to start with Willow at the helm. Stevens does expect that to occur this week.
As for the rest of the decisions on the country club, that will be up to the next board. Stevens’ term ends on Aug. 12.
“They’ll have a choice and the choice will be, as far as I can tell, to continue with this approach or to back off and let public works take over and run the bids,” Stevens said. “But how good are we at putting out RFPs? We’re not very good at it. It’s unfortunate.
“On the other hand, we can take a general contractor who takes all of that responsibility and basically does the competition for us,” he added. “In the end, you’re going to a construction contractor whose just going to do the same thing.”
But this week, board President Dave Stevens said things had become more complicated and that a decision would almost certainly be deferred to the next board of directors after the Aug. 12 election results are announced.
The OPA’s Public Works Department had been working on the renovations, but its removal of fire safety systems caused a host of problems with the county fire marshal.
During the July 28 meeting, interim General Manager Brett Hill asked the directors to approve a $536,000 contract with Willow to take over the project entirely. The Easton-based company handled the recent renovations of the Ocean Pines beach club.
Several directors said this was the first they had heard about the issues and asked for more time, and the board members agreed to decide by the first week of August.
On Tuesday, Stevens said he sent an updated report to the board, but had yet to receive a reply.
“Some of the premises upon which we were working on just turned out not to be true,” Stevens said. “One of the things that Brett suggested, because at that point in time we had no design drawings, [was] that it be turned over to Willow.
“As it turns out, at this point in time, we at least have a set of mechanical drawings and, I believe but I have not confirmed, that we have the engineering drawings as well,” he added.
Stevens said he thought the project was still on track, although he added, “it’s on a slightly different track than I think everybody imagined.”
“We’re doing something which is very comparable to what was done at the beach club,” he said. “We believe that’s about the most efficient way we can get it done at a reasonable timeframe.”
As he sees it, Ocean Pines would enter into an agreement to let Willow run the preconstruction phase as a general contractor. He said the company would take design drawings developed by other companies and public works and seek individual bids, for services from elections, plumbers and others, and “competitively bid the components” of the project.
Stevens said those individual components would not have to come back to the board for approval.
“What will have to come back to the board after this preconstruction phase is we’ll get a not-to-exceed type bid from Willow and the board will have to approve that and the corresponding design,” Stevens said. “It’s a different approach, but it’s the only approach that’ll get it done in a reasonable timeframe.”
He said the primary urgency was not the threat of fines or closing the facility, but rather the start of parallel renovations at the administration building.
The plan was to expand the footprint of the police quarters inside the administration building by moving all of the meeting spaces out of there into the country club. Now, one project is holding up the start of the other.
“If we don’t have a place to put all the people, then we’ll just have to postpone that – for a long time,” Stevens said.
The board originally budgeted $417,000 for the renovations and Hill came back with his own $536,000 proposal with Willow. Now, Stevens said, the price could be significantly different.
“I think so, but I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll probably find out within the next few weeks, and I have to wait to hear back from the rest of the board.”
Stevens said he hoped to get representatives from Sure Fire Protection Inc., a Salisbury company, and Willow together soon to go over the reinstallation of the sprinkler systems.
“When we put them back, they’re not going to have to come down again – they’ll stay there. They’re not going to interfere with the construction,” Stevens said. “I feel comfortable with the fire marshal conversation. They were upset about us not doing things quite right, but on the other hand they also expressed a real willingness and [understanding] … that’s what I got out of it.”
He said it was within Hill’s authority as the general manager to authorize preconstruction to start with Willow at the helm. Stevens does expect that to occur this week.
As for the rest of the decisions on the country club, that will be up to the next board. Stevens’ term ends on Aug. 12.
“They’ll have a choice and the choice will be, as far as I can tell, to continue with this approach or to back off and let public works take over and run the bids,” Stevens said. “But how good are we at putting out RFPs? We’re not very good at it. It’s unfortunate.
“On the other hand, we can take a general contractor who takes all of that responsibility and basically does the competition for us,” he added. “In the end, you’re going to a construction contractor whose just going to do the same thing.”