By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Police Chief Jeff Hooper told the City Council Tuesday he was pleased with the bids they got for renovating the law enforcement center.
"The financial situation and what's going on in the world today has actually, by all our experts and by our architects, has really helped us with this project," Hooper said. "We were anticipating maybe it coming back in at $2.8 million or maybe even up to $3 million. We had some really competitive bids. There were seven contractors in total that bid on the project. Some of them out of Wichita would not normally bid on a project this small."
That process allowed the total cost of the project to approach the original levels anticipated back in 2017.
"Weins and Company came in with our lowest bid at $1,559,000," Hooper said. "You'll see in the memo that I sent you there that there's some additional parts of the project that are outside that general construction bid. We've got bids, in quotes, from those other various companies."
Those are mostly standing vendors for things like locks and IT infrastructure and the like.
"We put in a 10% contingency, which we think is probably going to be good enough for this project," Hooper said. "All in total, if we accept the Weins and Company bid, the project is estimated to cost $2,204,400."
That's a little more than $135,000 under the original estimate that came in. The council approved the bid Tuesday.