THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260221
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
The city must sort out the numbers before deciding who will rebuild the Seatack Recreation Center and add amenities such as a swimming pool, gym and locker rooms.
Thirteen bids on the project were opened Monday and the apparent low bidder - Golden Eagle Construction Co. of Virginia Beach - asked to withdraw from consideration, citing an error in its figures, City Engineer John Herzke said.
Golden Eagle submitted a base bid of $1.9 million, which with contingency figures would have brought the figure to more than $2 million.
The next highest bidder on the project was McKenzie Construction Corp. of Virginia Beach, which submitted a base figure of $2.3 million.
Added contingencies brought McKenzie's total cost estimate to $2.43 million. This is about $230,000 over the city's projections for the job, Herzke said.
``As it stands right now, they'll probably be low bidder on the job and we'll have to go back to council for the additional funds,'' he said.
If all goes according to schedule, construction on the recreation center expansion should begin in April and conclude a year later.
Plans call for razing the existing building on Birdneck Road and erecting a new recreation center containing a six-lane, 25-meter swimming pool, a gym, locker rooms, showers and meetings rooms.
``This won't be the same size as the community centers at Great Neck, Princess Anne and Bayside,'' said Herzke. ``It'll be a somewhat condensed version.''
The City Council approved the expansion of the Seatack Center in June 1994, after considerable debate and mounting pressure from the Seatack Community.
The existing center has no pool, gym, locker rooms or shower. It does have two basic rooms for meetings and an office.
Residents of Seatack, the largest historically black neighborhood in the city, have lobbied council members for an upgraded center since the mid-1980s. In recent years the issue came to symbolize a rift between the predominantly low-income and black community and the city's white power structure. by CNB