CAPTION: Hutchinson City Hall, located at 125 East Ave B. CREDIT MICHAEL GLENN/THE HUTCHINSON TRIBUNE
By Michael Glenn
The Hutchinson City Council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance authorizing general obligation bonds to pay costs of certain improvements for phase II of construction for Woodie Seat Freeway and city hall at Monday night’s city council meeting.
Phase II construction for Woodie Seat Freeway includes removing the bridge over Ave. B, roundabout construction for Ave. A and pedestrian safety improvements.
Interim Public Works Director Cecil Weible told the council that the bid letting for phase II of Woodie Seat took place on Nov. 26. He said the city had three bidders come through. The city’s recommended bidder will be announced at the next council meeting.
“Of the three bids, the engineer estimate was $4.6 million,” Weible said. “We had two bids come in very competitively, around $3.6 and $3.9 million. And then we had another bidder come in considerably higher at $5.7 million.”
Weible said the city plans to start construction for phase II of Woodie Seat in early 2025 and complete construction between the beginning to middle of 2026. He confirmed that construction will not close down the bridge between Hutchinson and South Hutchinson.
Specific improvements to city hall will include constructing, renovating and installing safety improvements which include bullet-resistant glass and badge entry doors.
Director of Parks and Facilities Justin Combs told the council that safety updates to city hall will be located by the east entrance. He said safety updates are in the works for essentially two reasons.
“One to have transactions happen there instead of further back into the building,” Combs said. “Also to limit access into other secure parts of the building. The way the building is now, anybody can just kind of walk through and do whatever they want. There aren’t a lot of checkpoints within the building so there will be three transaction windows… like we have just a more secure window and then we will have a wall that will prevent people from roaming about the building unless they are escorted by a city employee.”
Director of Finance Angela Richard explained to the council that the IRS requires an ordinance to pass if the city plans on incurring certain costs such as architectural engineering, consulting or construction costs before the city bonds a project. She said total project costs are around $4 million.
The city will bond over one million for Woodie Seat phase II construction.
“We are going to subtract about the 600,000 that we have left in ARPA money, then ask to bond with bonding costs of $3.6 million,” Richard said.
Costs for the city hall safety renovations were budgeted for a lower amount compared to Woodie Seat.
“For the city hall safety renovations, the budgeted amount was $150,000,” Richard said. “With the contingencies and bonding cost, we are asking to bond about $225,000.”
The total amount of general obligation bonds for the resolution is not to exceed $3,825,000. Ordinance No. 50. was passed by the city on Oct. 4, 2016, for the purpose of issuing general obligation bonds for paying the costs of public improvements.
The ordinance will be published in the official City paper, The Hutchinson News.
