The Common Council met 03/05/2025. One of the items separated out for an individual vote was the request to approve a $449,995 contract with RJM Construction for the 2025 Pierce Park Renovation project to be paid in part by a carryover of $38,867 in left over funds from the 2024 budget to the 2025 budget.
This item was approved unanimously by the Common Council.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
This item was discussed briefly during the 02/24/2025 Finance Committee at which it was initially recommended for approval. During that meeting, Director of Parks and Recreation Dean Gazza told the committee that there was a lot of lead paint in the pavilion that needed to be stripped before the building was repainted. They needed to start working on that soon in order to have the pavilion ready for the city band concerts and other activities that were scheduled for the spring. For that reason, they brought this budget carryover request earlier than they were scheduled to bring their normal budget carryover request in order to be able to keep the project on schedule.
The project included a 15% contingency which was on the higher side and was intended to help cover the cost of fixing any problems that might arise as the project progressed. Director Gazza specifically mentioned wanting to fix any rotten boards that had not already been identified and noted that a lot of the columns were rotted.
At the Common Council meeting, Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) initially asked to refer the item back to committee because he had not been able to attend the Finance Committee and he had some questions about the scope of the project and why it cost nearly half a million dollars when the city had already spent about that amount on the pavilion only 10 years ago.
Normally, as a matter of courtesy, when an alderperson refers an item back to committee, the refer-back is not opposed. In this case, however, the item needed to be approved quickly in order to keep the project on schedule. Staff had actually brought the project forward early because they had identified lead paint that added an extra layer to the project, and the project needed to be completed before summer events started happening in the pavilion. Director Gazza told the Council that if the item was pushed back two weeks they would need to cancel the work until 2026.
The Council voted against referring the item back to committee and without addition discussion ended up voting unanimously to approve the contract and budget carryover request for the project.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1254913&GUID=C260C405-73BE-44C1-AB5D-0E14FB8294A8
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