Bids opened for Mary Mac project

Talk about it

Bids for the Mary MacDonald Center renovation were opened last Tuesday in Silver Bay and city administrator Lana Fralich provided the council with an update about the project during their Monday night meeting.

The renovation project is aimed at the installation of a fire suppression system (sprinklers) throughout the entire building. Also included is the addition of a loading dock and handicap access. The safety and accessibility projects will bring the city-owned facility up to city code.

TL Construction of Floodwood submitted a $439,000 bid and Johnson Wilson Constructors of Duluth offered a bid of $413,000. The city hopes the project will be underway this spring.

The former school building also is in need of energy efficient windows and the bids included alternate bid options that could possibly fit that into the project as well.

Fralich mentioned that the bids appear to have room for the windows, though lingering roof issues at the building may come into play on how the dollars are spent.

The city last summer received nearly $700,000 funding for renovation and upgrades at the building through the Iron Range Resources (IRR) agency, legislated taconite production tax dollars and Lake County.

In other council business:

• Lake County Highway engineer Al Goodman came to the council in need of a resolution allowing CSAH funding to be spent in the city. The plans are to upgrade 4.8 miles of CSAH 4 (Lax Lake Rd.) and CSAH 5 (Penn Blvd. and Outer Drive). The plans are to add another layer of bituminous to CSAH 4 near the new intersection with CSAH 5 and then to mill and overlay the roadway into Silver Bay all the way down to Highway 61. The council approved the resolution and Goodman hopes to get the proposal onto the five-year plan.

• The plans to go after an FAA grant for building a new arrival/departure building at the Silver Bay-Wayne Johnson Municipal Airport were tabled until the March 16 meeting. The council didn’t receive the agreement from the non-profit Friends of North Shore Aviation group that will provide at least $5,000 toward the project in the estimated $236,209 project.

During the Feb. 17 council meeting, there was some discussion that the project cost could be lowered to be able to include the demolition of the old A/D building and the removal of the storage vault also on the site.

RSH Engineering reps informed the council on Monday that the city wouldn’t save much to try and size down the 20’X30’ building since any additional engineerring would have to be added to the existing contract.

• There was discussion about the City of Silver Bay handling its own board of appeal and equalization duties once again. The Lake County Assessor’s Office now handles that task and that means local residents have to head to Two Harbors to have their property valuation concerns heard. The next equalization board hearing is set for April 23 at the Lake County Courthouse. The council will follow up on the issue in the coming weeks.

Tags: silverbay, citycouncil