BIDS FOR NEW ANIMAL SHELTER WAY OVER BUDGET

Mary-Janet February 20, 2015

322

Brenham’s new animal shelter and adoption center construction bids came in higher than architectural estimates, which will now involve the project to be reevaluated.

Brenham Police Chief Rex Phelps say that the four bids received were “significantly higher than expected” and that the city has $2 million for the project, with half of that coming from private sources.

Phelps had this to say about the future of the project.

Phelps says the first step will be to go through value engineering to try to get the project to a lower overall cost. Phelps says that is it not unusual for public projects to be higher than hoped for bids, but these bids came out much higher than expected.

Putting more money into the project isn’t really an option, says Phelps, and that ideally, it would be better to get the project cost down to a point where the city or community do not need to be approached for more money.

The shelter cannot be put on hold indefinitely due to the project having higher costs in the future, and also because the current shelter is not serviceable. It has serious structural problems and is currently inadequate for today's needs, according to city officials.