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Deadwood Rec Center on hold - Deadwood Mountain Grand continues forward

By Marla Loken

The Deadwood City Commission approved bids on one major city project but rejected bids on another this week.

Commissioners solemnly voted to reject bids received on the Rec Center expansion and renovation project of the bid opening held July 22.

Deadwood Public Works Director J.R. Raysor told commissioners that even after working to cut the low bid of $7.9 million by one million dollars, the City would still come up short, “The reality it’s a wonderful plan and the people in town would love to see it, but the money’s not there. The first change order that came in, we’d be out of business.”

The total estimated needed to complete the project comes to roughly $400,000 more than the funds available. But if the city were to try and revamp the plan too drastically, Raysor warned, “You’ll have a garage with a swimming pool. I don’t think that’s what the people of Deadwood want.”

Mayor Francis Toscana said, “I know as a commission and as citizens, a lot of us are disappointed. We’ll get back with the Parks and Rec Board; we’re going to have to come up with another game plan.”

Bids submitted for the Deadwood Mountain Grand-Slime Plant Façade fared better. Commissioners approved awarding the bid to Gustafson Builders in the base bid amount of $1,539,000. Awarding an alternate bid of leaving a portion of the existing west wall or moving the wall will be determined by the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Parks Service. That will make the difference in the final cost and Tentexkota, the company developing the Deadwood Mountain Grand Hotel and Convention Center, will be responsible for any additional costs over the $1.7 already committed to the project by the City. Kuchenbecker said, “We’ll either be $17,000 over or $3,000 under, depending on what is decided about the west wall.”

Commissioner Lenny Schroeder questioned the wide discrepancy in the alternate bidding that ranged from a decrease of $20,000 to an increase of $150,000. Historic Preservation Officer Kevin Kuchenbecker assured the commission that repeated communications between his office and the construction companies left no room for misunderstandings in the bidding process.

The front façade is expected to be completed in a six month time frame.

In other business, the continuance of a public hearing held Aug. 4 regarding an abatement of nuisance items on property adjacent to 58 Pleasant Street remains continued. The owners of the items collected by city workers and stored in the City’s cold storage facility were instructed to let the Public Works Office know what items they wanted to recover, but no response has been made. City Attorney Jason Campbell told commissioners that the city could not legally sell any of the nuisance items to recoup expenses incurred by city workers in the clean up efforts.