Ludington considering repairing Stearns Park restrooms

[Dave]

I know there was a thread on this a little while back but I wasn't in the mood to look for it so sue me. Anyway, at the price tag they are talking you'd think they were going to replace the restrooms, not repair. I'm no contractor by any means but $85,000 just seems to be a lot of money for bathrooms.

LUDINGTON — The Ludington City Council is expected to approve a bid to renovate the Stearns Park north concession stand restrooms during its regular meeting Monday.

A low bid of $84,890 was received from Winberg Construction of Montague; Winberg submitted an additional bid of $15,900 to tile the walls in the restroom rather than painting the concrete block walls.

“Though the bids came in over budget, I believe it is important to complete this project due to the poor conditions of these restrooms,” City Manager John Shay wrote in a memo to the council. Shay said more people are using the restrooms because of a walkway that was installed last year. He said the city has received many complaints about the poor condition of the restrooms and that they are not Americans with Disabilities Act compliant.

The city allocated $68,000 for the project. Shay said because the bid came in over budget he is recommending that the tile work not be done and the walls be painted instead.

City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. at city hall.

http://www.masoncountypress.com/2013/03/17/ludington-considering-re...

[XLFD]

If they decided to tile the wall, this project would have been over $100,000.  In the next two years, we are effectively going to repair two small restrooms/changing rooms in a building whose current worth would be lucky to be a quarter of that.  What is the City thinking, and what the heck are they planning on doing inside a restroom that could make it come anywheres near that figure?

[Dave]

If they were going to do like a concession stand or something similar I could maybe see the cost approaching if not going over the suggested amount as of course it can be quite pricey to put in food related services but as far as been reported, that's not the case here. It does make me wonder that the bid that was accepted was higher then what they expected to pay, wondering if the company that offered the bid knows they can make easy money off the city or something.

[XLFD]

If they actually approve this boondoggle tonight, which they likely will, the work will be starting this week.  It was well known that the City had budgetted $34,000 for the project, and they had scheduled tours of the facility earlier, probably telling the contractors what they expect to pay for some extravagances.  Nice to know that we're living within our means-- expect another summer tax hike to pay for these craphouse improvements.

[Lisa O'Brien]

Well if they are going to make them ADA compliant, there will be some modifications that have to be made, I'm not sure what the current doors measure, so I am assuming that they will need to be widened, unless it's a flat surface a ramp will have to be installed  at least one stall will have to be enlarged so that a wheel chair can fit inside it and be able to turn around. At least 1 sink will be lowered and hand dryer/ towel setup.

[XLFD]

Ramping isn't really an issue, but doorway widths and other ADA compliant guidelines (such as noted here) is the likely impetus behind this move.  I was there earlier today and peeked in the windows and made some measurements.  Of course, these restrooms are closed for about 2/3 of the year, so I wasn't able to get inside.  What you have are some cramped quarters and very solid partitions. 

The whole area, mens and women's restroom/change area, is rather small both being about 12" X 24" maximum, and partitioned in a way that would make ADA people cringe.  Right now there's a couple stalls, sinks and a couple of changing rooms, and I don't see them getting anything more to fit in the small space and comply with ADA.   They likely will have to re-situate some piping, repartition a bit differently, and install motion detector toilets/sinks but $43,000 for each 12" X 24" restroom?  Seriously. 

Here's an ADA compliant fully-sensored toilet for under $200. 

An ADA Compliant bathroom sink for under $50. 

Multiply by four, and you have fixtures for under a thousand for both restrooms.  Knocking out partitions and putting in partitions, making plumbing adjustments, redoing the floor and putting a coat of paint pushes the total to $86,000?  These are tasks that any handyman around the house can do in their spare time for a thousand or two in materials tops, and have it done in a couple of weeks.  But the City is paying enough for a full year's employment of 6 employees working at minimum wage to update these small waterclosets. 

[XLFD]

The City Council unanimously supported this expenditure last night, with no real explanation or expectation of using less money to do it.  Let's consider $84,890 for a minute. 

 

Mayor John Henderson brought a lovely house on Tinkham last August for a bit less than that amount last year.

The assessed value of Councilor Marrison's house ($33,800) and Councilor Castonia's house ($37,200) together equal $15,000 less than the remodeling fee of these two small bathroom interiors.

 

This concession stand was built in 1952 at an estimated cost of $12,000.  Due to inflation, the cost to construct the same structure today would be just over $100,000.  With the cost for engineering and acceptance of this bid, we will be close to that figure to adapt these two bathrooms to comply with ADA today.