KEY COLONY BEACH TO CONSIDER CITY HALL BIDS

Aproposed new city hall in Key Colony Beach now has an official price tag, according to two bids opened by City Administrator David Turner in front of an agitated crowd outside KCB’s temporary city hall trailers on the afternoon of June 5.

Of 26 interested parties who retrieved drawings for the currentlyproposed iteration of the building, as prepared by architectural firm LIVS Associates, the city received just two bids for the project: one for $8,375,000 from Miami-based Hands On Builders LLC, and the other for $12,487,948.70 from Mobile, Alabama-based Persons Services Corporation.

Set to include individual offices for city staff, a headquarters for the Key

Colony Beach Police Department and a space for city commission meetings and other events while preserving a U.S. Post Office location within the city limits, the proposed development is a years-long bone of contention among city officials and some residents.

With some claiming the original ground-level building, constructed in 1959 and rendered unusable for six years following Hurricane Irma, is salvageable, several have amplified their efforts in recent months to demand greater transparency in Key Colony’s decision-making process or continue advocating for the renovation of the existing building.

Speaking to the Weekly following the bid opening, 25-year KCB resident Donald Steamer said it was difficult for some to have a full understanding of the proposed project while poring through pages of plans foreign to those outside of the construction industry.

“These are complex drawings, and many people just don’t have the ability to understand, nor should you expect them to,” he said. “If it’s going to be for public use for a number of years – why isn’t it easy for the public who lives here to understand? … The function of municipal government should at least be to keep the people informed.”

When asked what form of communication would prove adequate for the citizens of KCB, Steamer recom- mended a summary report or scale model of the hall, some of which would likely be funded by taxes from residents. He said greater communication would likely go a long way to ease the concerns of residents who oppose the new hall simply because they can’t understand its full scope.

“For the next 50 years, we should have something that the people understand what they’re buying into,” he said.

Other residents expressed concern with the new design’s elevated structure and increased footprint over what is currently green space in front of the existing hall, telling the Weekly the new plans “go away from having a nice park-like city hall to having a built-up shopping center” that fails to fit existing architecture in KCB.

Former construction manager and Key Colony resident Dan Schott said the price difference of more than 40% between bids is a significant cause for concern, telling the Weekly he hoped the city would hire an experienced construction lawyer to avoid being “stuck” with added costs after accepting an unrealistic initial bid.

“The process here has gone awry,” he said. “You need a good lawyer in the construction business that knows what I’m talking about because he’s sued everybody on the other side of the table.” continued on page 8