By Ginny Hamilton

On April 26, the Town received one general contractor bid for the Jones Library Renovation and Expansion Project, which was approximately $6.5 million over budget. 

Why was this bid so high? This is the multi-million-dollar question! Project architects and Owners Project Manager (OPM) are talking with contractors and with similar projects to explore why the bid was so much higher than estimates. Here’s what we’ve learned:

• Cost estimates are based on an assumption a project will receive five bids, with costs restrained by bidders competing to win the project. The Town pre-qualified six contractors, yet only one submitted a bid.
• Anecdotally, the biggest driver was timing. Contractors chose not to bid because of their own workloads, debt limits, and lack of available subcontractors heading into the busy summer construction season. 
• Other projects have also faced a dearth of bids. Tilton Library in Deerfield, for instance, received only one bid at 10% over budget estimates for its project. That project is much smaller than the Jones Library plans, and Deerfield chose to move ahead at the higher cost. 

Can we move ahead at this higher cost? No. The lone bid was 18% over budget and thus was prohibitively high. On May 13, the Trustees voted to recommend the Town Manager reject all bids (one general contractor and multiple subcontractors). However, there’s reason to believe that re-bidding the project in September could bring a better result.

Can we go out to bid again? Yes. Town and State officials have confirmed that we can rebid the project because we received only one bid that was significantly over budget. Doing so depends on the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) agreeing to grant a waiver of their June 30 deadline for the Town to sign with a general contractor. On May 20, the Trustees voted to ask the MBLC to extend the contract deadline to December 31. 

Could going out to bid again bring a lower cost? Possibly. At the May 20 Trustees meeting, lead architect Ellen Anselone explained how re-bidding may bring better results.

• September is generally considered the best time to seek low bids because contractors are wrapping up summer projects and lining up work for the year ahead. 
• Learning from this spring’s bidding process, amendments and alternatives will be included in the new bid documents from the beginning. 
• Additionally, the Town, architects and OPM will make a concerted effort to ensure multiple, competitive bids are received which predictably results in a lower bid. Anselone explained that an industry-wide analysis by the Army Corps of Engineers showed that receiving a single bid is associated with a 20% higher cost. This current situation is consistent with industry-wide experience.

What happens next? The Jones Library Building Committee (JLBC) has asked the architects to develop a list of possible design changes and estimates of the reduced costs each could provide. For instance, landscaping may be scaled back or saved entirely for the future. These details will be presented at the JLBC meeting on Tuesday, May 28 at 5:00 pm on Zoom. (Meeting details are here.)

If the MBLC grants the requested extension, the Town will contract with the architects to prepare a bid package incorporating addenda from this spring and a menu of alternate components. As they have throughout the project, the Trustees and the Town Manager, advised by the Building Committee, remain the decision-making parties at this time. 

Can we make the project smaller? No. Cutting the size would forfeit MBLC funds entirely and jeopardize federal and private funding that is committed for specific programmatic features of the renovation and expansion. In other words, making the project smaller would require going back to square one.

The hope is that providing design alternatives, combined with competitive bids at a more favorable time of year will result in bids aligned with the borrowing cap approved by Town Council. 

Isn’t that a lot to hope for? Yes. Recognizing the risk, the Trustees are simultaneously looking at urgent repair needs, should new bids prove too costly. Still, Library leaders have chosen to seek lower bids rather than throw in the towel and pursue costly repairs at this juncture. Detailed professional estimates commissioned by the Trustees in 2020 concluded that the repairs required simply to keep the Library operational would cost $14-16 million in 2020 dollars, roughly the same amount as the Town’s commitment to the project ($15.8 million). With recent inflation, updated estimates prepared by Town Staff last fall concluded that those repairs would cost $19-21 million in 2023 dollars, several million more than the Town’s commitment to the project.

The Trustees, capital campaign committee, and many donors and project supporters remain committed to the vision for the Library and its positive social and economic impact for the Town.

Details in this column are based on information shared during Jones Library Trustees meetings on May 13 and May 20, 2024 and Jones Library Building Committee meetings on May 7 and May 21, 2024.

Currently employed by the Friends of the Jones Libraries to manage the Capital Campaign fundraising efforts, Ginny Hamilton (she/they) has worked in campaign organizing and advocacy for social change for over 30 years. Ginny lives in South Amherst with spouse and teen, two parakeets, and too many mice to count.