From a Peoria County press release:
Peoria County conducted the Peoria Riverfront Museum (PRM) bid opening this afternoon at the Peoria County Courthouse. Five companies submitted bids for construction of the PRM: Core Construction of Morton, IL; PJ Hoerr of Peoria, IL; River City Construction of East Peoria, IL; Walsh Construction of Chicago, IL; and Williams Brothers Construction of Peoria Heights, IL. The following table shows respective bid amounts:
*Alternate totals reflect the cumulative amount submitted for 31 items not included in the base bid.
Construction costs for the PRM were estimated at $35,829,249. Andrew Rand, Peoria County Board Member and Chairman of the County’s PRM Construction Committee, remarks on the cost savings realized by the bid amounts: "Peoria County is very pleased with the results of today’s bid opening. Protecting the tax payers’ investment is our top priority and, with bids coming in as much as $8 million below our estimates, we are able to do that. The museum project is moving forward at a time when construction costs are the most favorable we’ve seen in recent years and I believe this downtown development project bodes well for our economy and our workers."
Over the course of the coming days, county staff will conduct its due diligence to verify that all bid requirements were met and subsequently recommend the lowest responsible bid to the Peoria Riverfront Museum Committee at its meeting next week; meeting date and time are yet to be determined. Then, on December 9 at its regular meeting, the County Board will vote to award construction of the Peoria Riverfront Museum to the company submitting the lowest responsible bid.
Dave Ransburg, President of the Peoria Riverfront Museum Board of Directors, outlines the project timeline: "Over the past few months, we’ve all watched the progress of the parking deck in anticipation of the next phase: construction of the museum itself. Next week’s bid award is a major milestone in a project that’s been a long time coming. Now we just have a few short winter months to wait until construction begins and what has been known as the museum project will become reality in the fall of 2012!"
County Board Chairman Thomas H. O’Neill III echoes Ransburg’s enthusiastic sentiments: "The museum is happening and it is bringing jobs to our community when jobs are scarce across the country. It is a credit to the local construction trades that four of the five companies submitting a bid for this project are based right here in central Illinois. Using local labor to build the museum will help build our economy and there’s no better time for that than now."
For more information on the Peoria Riverfront Museum construction bids please call County Administration at (309) 672-6056.
“Protecting the tax payers’ investment is our top priority….” Funniest. Line. Ever.
“Museum bids come in lower than estimated.”
Well of course they did…
What I find irritating is we may be able to vote out members of the Peoria County Board/Peoria City Council who promote and support this idiocy, but how do we get rid of Ransburg, Rand and the rest of these…
hooligans!?! Will they NEVER go away!?!
All I can say is I hope these construction workers will all be Green Card, Union Card carrying labor!
What is going to happen to the extra money now in the budget due to the savings? The 8 mil. more or less is a fair sum that I would guess would only vanish down the rabbit hole.
I would think the 8 mil will need to be saved for the inevitable overruns.
Bids? BIDS? They’ve already STARTED!!!!!!!! WTF????
Well, regardless of how people want to paint this, it is very good news.
Good news that we will get our newest White Elephant cheaper than planned? Wowee.
District,
Hey! I understand you are a “the glass is half-full,” kind of guy; the problem is…what exactly is the glass FULL of!?!
I don’t care how much you don’t like the museum project. I am not wild about it myself. But $8 million is a big deal and anybody that isn’t happy that the project came $8 million under budget is clearly so prejudiced that they can’t think straight.
All I can say is everyone here please remember this day that this was announced. In two years tell us where that 8 million went.
But it’s STILL 8 MILLION WE SHOULDN’T BE SPENDING!!
District 150 Observer: Whatever you are getting paid by whoever to police this blog and say good things about the City and the people who work for it can’t be enough. You are resilient and you apply yourself as if this is the only gig you have.
You use the moniker District 150 Obeserver, but it is evident you are here to defend the interest of the City and Chamber. You do a helluvajob. Carry on.
I will speak my mind anytime I want here. I never defend the city or the Chamber. I don’t think I have EVER commented on the Chamber here. I couldn’t even name one person who works for the Chamber. Me thinks you are confused.
If this museum project is happening–and I believe it is–I am happy it is $8 million less than anticipated. All taxpayers should be happy about that.
New Voice, my only point is that the bids coming in $8 mil under is a good thing. You don’t have to be a supporter of the museum to think that spending $8 mil less is better than spending $8 mil more.
There is such a hatred here for the county and the city that some are simply blinded by anything that might be the smallest piece of good news.
I agree with District 150 observer. Whether you like or hate the museum, it is good news that it is costing 8 mil less than originally planned.
District 150 Observer says: “I am happy it is $8 million less than anticipated. All taxpayers should be happy about that.”
What difference does it make to the taxpayers, really? Are the savings going to be returned to us? The county has promised the museum $40 million, and the museum is going to spend $40 million. If they save $8 million on construction, then that $8 million will be spent on something else museum-related. The taxpayers are still out $40 million no matter what. I will say this — I’ll be happy if they don’t spend any more than $40 million of our money (and our children’s money) on this.
Dstrict, I was just trying to ruffle your feathers…….
I do agree with Vonster…it is $8 million we should not be spending, especially on frivilous ‘quality-of-life’ projects like this museum.
Also, I believe that the construction costs/estimates as per the PRM Group, were as bogus and fabricated as their museum economic impact studies.
This gag is as old as history… it is EASY to come in under cost when you set the initial estimate artificially high!
…of course we ALL know how ‘shrewd’ our city council and county board members are…
Excuse me now. I am going to East Peoria to by a shotgun, a few fishing lures, and gamble my wife’s paycheck away. Then…?
Church.
Dist 150 Observer said “I couldn’t even name one person who works for the Chamber. Me thinks you are confused.”
I was going to agree with you and I am pleased the costs will come in hopefully at or under budget. A lot about this project I didn’t and do not like but I hope it succeeds for mine and every tax payers sake. Yet,when you make statements like the one above you lose credibility. You should go into politics with that bs. Wait. Maybe you already are.
I know who Spain is and the head guy–Jim M–don’t know how to spell it. 🙂
I believe those are Heartland Partnership guys, not Chamber guys. Isn’t the Chamber a separate organization under the Heartand Partnership? So no, I can’t name the Chamber guys. Sorry if that bothers you.
And, no sir, I am not a politician. Never have been
CJ, ultimately if the project costs $8 million less than the taxpayers will not have to pay it. If it costs $8 million more, the taxpayers would have to pay it.
$8 million huh? Anyone say Belwood???
Maybe someone outta ask just who the Museum Group had cost estimating the project, if their cost estimator was off by that much, perhaps there are going to be still more surprises that come to light as the thing actually begins to be built.
NV, CJ and Desparado: Exactly. Gary Sandberg calls it ‘juicing the numbers.’
And the ‘savings’ is lower since there was a ‘miscalculation’ on the county’s part.
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1996679053/Peoria-County-adjusts-museum-bid-figures
D150 Observer: Ultimately if the project….. Operative/key word if. And the museum group was supposed to be responsible for the maintenance of the museum …. now, another tune is being played along with the other tunes always being changed, and voila the taxpayers are in charge of that …. because we want to protect the taxpayers investment.
Everytime there is another news release about some aspect of the PRM, I immediately think of the Emerald City and the horse of a different color …. not sure who many colors we have seen…..
And perhaps some of the ‘surplus’ from the underbid will be needed for museum artifact storage when the PPD renovates Lakeview with still more taxpayer dollars.
Just waiting until the PRM Grand Opening … Ryan Beasley promised me that he was going to purchase a family membership for me, Brad Harding was standing right there. THis was the night of the some other theater than the IMAX to support the PRM mission statement at the PCB presentation. So, Ryan if you are reading this blog, please remember that I am eagerly awaiting to collect my membership.
I can swear that if we had $40 mil to spend and we spent it on infrastructure improvement we could reap multiple benefits. To throw it down the throat of a museum monster will create negative revenue. This will be a blight by 2020. {Remember how the Cub Foods project was going to save Peoria?} But Ransburg, Rand, et al can throw their discs out patting themselves on the back. Chiropractors will rejoice.
to boil it down, much like with some members of the city council and most certainly the state is trust. unfortunately, the good sheep of the general public vote blindly for people they continue to not trust.
To answer the question, go the Heartland Partnerships website, the chamber, among other organizations, is under Heartland. Jim is the head of HP, Ryan is now a vice president, although I did not looke to see over what aspect or perhaps all of the chamber. The VP title was listed in his bio when he annouced.
I meant VP over HP not the chamber, Rob Parks leads the chamber, but is under Jim.
Since the bid came in $8 million lower, shouldn’t the county lower the amount they are providing by the same amount since the county was supposed to be providing the difference between what was raised and what was estimated to be needed?
So … how much can a contractor bloat his bill above the bid? 25%? 100%?
Haven’t any of you ever hired a contractor to do any work in your home… they bid $5000, and charge you $6500.
Don’t know Rob Parks. After looking at the Heartland Website, I do know several of the board members of the Chamber—but those people are unpaid community leaders. As for the paid employees of the Chamber itself, I am not familiar with these people. Heartland is different, spain and Jim M I am familiar with through the press.
Hope that answers whoever was unhappy with me. 🙂
Charlie, there will need to be change orders to charge beyond the bid. These change orders will have to be authorized/signed off on before the builder can “overbill”.
Even though the bids came in at 8 million lower than expected that does not mean that this 8 million will not be spent. They will just use it for something else and consider themselves blessed. As someone mentioned earlier they have called for 40 million and that is what they are going to spend regardless of the construction bid totals. Like I said, see where that 8 million is in two years. And then you add the cost over runs or change orders to that.
they’re bids! don’t anybody get too excited just yet. public dollar projects and the bid process do not spur much enthusiasm from this poster. and that stupid referendum that passed, allowing money to go to projects beside the museum (because we were told the referendum language HAD to be such which is total BS)…not a dime will be ‘saved.’