Petersburg Pilot -

The Petersburg Borough Assembly have put the new Petersburg Police Facility Project on hold in order to investigate lower prices for the

project.

“I would suggest that we delegate the Borough Manager to look for a lower cost alternative price for the police and jail facility,” Petersburg Borough Assembly member John Hoag stated. “I would like for us to also give him the authority to cancel or enter into new contracts because the price tag on this facility is just beyond the reach of this community.”

The last engineer estimate that was received for this project was well over $9 million.

“We have asked the legislature to re-appropriate $1.9 million from the surplus of the fire hall project,” Petersburg Borough Mayor Mark Jensen said. “That still leaves us about $7.5 million short.”

According to Jensen, no good news is coming from the legislature regarding the Capital Improvement Projects.

“We won't know until the session is over,” Jensen stated. “”But it isn't looking like we will get the money.”

Wayne Jensen of Jensen, Yorba, Lott, Inc. attended the Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting telephonically Monday evening and answered questions of the Assembly.

Assembly member Sue Flint asked if there were any ways to bring the costs down.

“We are just at the schematic design phase now and that is just one-third of the design,” W. Jensen said. “We have looked at the program for the facility and determined what is needed. Those schematics were then sent to a cost estimator and that is where the $9 million came from.”

He did state that there are a few ways in which to reduce the cost of the facility and reducing the space was the first option stated.

“We could eliminate the covered parking for official vehicles and remove the sally port and that reduced it down to the $8 million range and that is still high,” W. Jensen said. “The estimate is only an independent estimators opinion of what the costs may be. This was the same company we used for the fire station and his estimate was higher than the bid came in, but that may not always be the case.”

According to Jensen, the best way to cut costs is to reduce the size of the building.

“Other than these suggestions, there really aren't any other ways to reduce the cost in my opinion,” he stated. “The building itself was estimated at $7 million.”

Suggestions of different building materials, local rock for excavation and steel cells were discussed among the Assembly but none were met with any positive feedback from Jensen.

The estimate per square foot for this building was valued at $500 per square foot.

“There have been other businesses around Petersburg who have put up a metal building and had it finished for around $100 per square foot,” Mayor Jensen stated. “I would like to know why there is such a difference.”

W. Jensen answered that the security system, control room, stand-by generators and security windows, etc. is what will make the difference.

The project has been put on hold until other alternatives can be investigated.