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A $100,000-speed bump is delaying renovations at the Ninety Six Town Park.

The 2016 Capital Project Sales Tax referendum allocated $440,727.23 to renovate the Ninety Six Town Park, but once the project was put out to bid the lowest bidder’s offer was still over budget.

The project was put out to bid June 29, seeking contractors who could do necessary site work on the grounds, renovate the gazebo and build a new restroom facility to replace the existing one, along with an add-on alternative for electrical hookups along the park’s perimeter.

Only two companies bid on the project: Greenway Construction and Wiley Easton Construction. Greenway’s bid was nearly $200,000 cheaper than the competitor, at $483,000, but after the county used part of the allocated CPST funds for planning from Davis and Floyd, only about $380,000 remain to pay for the renovation.

“We did meet with Greenway Construction since they were the lowest bidder,” Ninety Six Mayor Mike Rowe said. “We knew we were going to have to trim some things.”

After about three weeks, Greenway came back with a plan to only rebuild the bathrooms, renovate the gazebo and work on a single walking trail for about $350,000.

“That didn’t include the playground equipment, and that’s the main part of the park. Children play there every day,” Rowe said.

Josh Skinner, Greenwood County’s CPST coordinator, has run into this issue with a few projects now. Sometimes when a multi-faceted project is bid out and comes back over budget, breaking the project down into separate bids can help reduce the cost and allow for more companies to competitively bid.

Rowe said Davis and Floyd will help the town split the bid — bidding out the playground, bathrooms and gazebo separately. On Monday, Ninety Six Town Council voted to reject the Greenway bid so they can move forward with re-bidding the project.

While he said he knows materials and construction costs have risen considerably in the past year, he still hopes they can afford to have electrical outlets put in throughout the park. That would help offer electricity to vendors who set up during the S.C. Festival of Stars.

“We need to try to get the most we possibly can out of the money we have,” Rowe said.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Oct 21, 2022

By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/ninety-six-to-re-bid-town-park-upgrades/article_98b76a7b-a26e-55b7-97a2-0cc1247651a9.html