City council executes contract on conference center

The Maryville City Council held a special meeting on November 9, to approve a contract with EL Crawford Construction, Inc., St. Joseph, for the construction of the Mozingo Lake Conference Center.

The ordinance was read two times in open session and then adopted by the council. The contract is for $5,719,000 and was the low bid which was opened on October 20.

The first change order for the project was also approved after being read two times in open session. Change Order No. 1 will actually lower the cost of the conference center to $4.57 million which is under the $4.6 million bonding capability of the city for the project. EL Crawford Construction will be able to start construction next week.

The $1.14 million savings was brought about by value engineering items in the original design. The city staff and EL Crawford Construction worked on the process for two to three weeks. Items to be changed include reducing deck size, changing HVAC specifications, grading a slope instead of building a retaining wall, changing window packaging, not paving a lower parking lot, and other items.

Mayor Pro-Tem Rachael Martin asked if the changes would take business away from local contractors. She was assured by City Manager Greg McDanel that it should increase business because products would be more readily available in the local area.