Bids higher than budgeted amount for new building

By: WALTER WEBB, Editor        
                   
Holly Springs Mayor Eddie Lee Smith said he has several options to discuss with the Board of Aldermen after bids received last week for the proposed multi-purpose building exceeded the amount of money available.

The lowest of four bids for construction of the 17,000 square foot building was from C & M Construction in Memphis for $1,084,000.

The city was to have $900,000 to put into the building from a $1 million bond issue and $200,000 of that money has been spend on acquiring land on North Memphis Street.

The building is being proposed to serve a variety of purposes including meetings and concerts as well as recreation. The building is designed to have two basketball courts.

The Tourism and Recreation Bureau received $100,000 from the bond issue to establish a tourism office and to hire staff.

A tax on food and beverages sold in Holly Springs was implemented to repay the bond issue and to fund the tourism effort.

Included in the bid format were seven different alternate deductions that itemized how much the base bid would be reduced if the alternate were deleted.

The items that could be deleted were a gym floor, folding bleachers, basketball backstops, curtain divider, site work, parking and replacing brick facade with siding.

With all items deleted, C & M Construction's bid ended up $775,207.

Although the city has just $700,000 available for the building, the mayor said that he was not considering reducing the size of the facility.

He said he has a couple of options that he wants to discuss with the Board of Aldermen at next week's meeting.

"We'll have something definite to say next week," the Mayor said.

Other bids on the building were: Panola Construction - $1,148,500; Griffin Builders - $1,160,000; Mike Rozier Construction - $1,315,928.

C & M Construction's deductions were $68,106 for gym floor; $20,000 for folding bleachers; $18,252 for basketball backstops; $5,400 for curtain divider; $75,000 for site work; $100,000 for parking and $22,000 for substituting siding for brick.