Council keeps watch on Mound House time line
Getting the Mound House open by the end of April is a big issue facing the Fort Myers Beach Town Council.
On Tuesday, Jan. 18, council members discussed three facets of the restoration process involved in that particular challenge during three administrative agenda items. The results were approved action to open bids for construction and restoration of the Mound House and postpone the invitation to bid for construction of the proposed observation/fishing pier off its property.
Town Manager Terry Stewart began the first item discussion with a monthly updated report on the overall restoration. He quickly gave way to Project Manager Cathie Lewis, the town’s public works director, who supplied a detailed account of a landscaping delay.
“We held a construction meeting yesterday (Jan. 17), and the good news is there might be another deductive change order associated with the electrical work,” said Lewis. “The bad news is they encountered a conflict with a sanitary line putting in the storm water structures which requires a conflict box to be installed. It will cause the project to be delayed. I anticipate a 15-day delay.”
The delay is not expected to impact the completion date. Other landscaping work is expected to continue during the design and manufacturing of the conflict box.
“Fortunately this comes early in the project, and gives us time to get it resolved,” said Stewart.
Vice Mayor Bob Raymond stuck to his guns on his expectations of site development work being completed by the end of spring. The town purchased the 2.8-acre property in 2000, but even though the grounds have been open to foot traffic, the house remains closed and under construction with expectations to restore some of it to its 1921 historic parameters.
“I still want that done by the end of April,” said Raymond. “I want people to be able to go there and see the exhibit open.”
The second item discussion focused on building requirements of Florida Communities Trust and the Division of Historical Preservation. Although a historic preservation certified architect must be connected to the documents, general contractors are not required to be certified. Some parts were recognized as needing historic restoration.
“FCT communicated that there were no specific requirements on their part on a contractor to have any kind of historic preservation certification,” said Stewart. “They did encourage the town to try to select someone who has some background on doing work of that nature whenever possible.
“This is not an opera building. It doesn’t have fancy molding and things of that nature. It’s a fairly basic type of a building.”
Stewart suggested asking bidders to provide alternative methodologies to accomplish both historic and regular construction plans. He mentioned a two-year time frame for museum pieces to be installed and ready for the public.
“If there is a small gap in getting the restoration done in its final format and doing some work now, do you really just want to do little bit of work and spend more money a year or two down the road? We need to get information that can help you understand that,” said Stewart.
Before making the motion to authorize staff to proceed with an invitation to bid for remaining construction/restoration of the Mound House, Councilman Tom Babcock made a clarification.
“The key is to make sure we have a certified architect, and I think we are getting way beyond the purview of the policy decisions,” he said. “This is just about restoring the house.”
The third and final aspect of Mound House preparation centered on the building of an observation pier to fulfill responsibilities of executed grant agreements with the Lee County Tourist Development Council.
The structure is a proposed 50-foot extended offshore decking which is the ire of neighbors of the Mound House due its fishing use element. At the Jan. 3 meeting, council urged staff to ask the TDC if the word ‘fishing’ could be eliminated out of the name due to near-by Beach residents assuming the pier would be used more as a public fishing pier. The response was the elimination would make the pier ineligible for TDC funding.
Much discussion, with pro and con public input, surfaced on the issue. Ideas such as getting the pier gated and building an observation tower to remove the fishing element and make it less obtrusive over the waterway, were bounced around.
In the end, council decided to hold off on the invitation to bid for construction of the pier until after the house is open.
“Let’s keep the focus on opening the excavation and getting the landscaping done,” said Councilman Alan Mandel, who made the motion to delay. “There’s no need to make a decision tonight.”
Council keeps watch on Mound House time line
Getting the Mound House open by the end of April is a big issue facing the Fort Myers Beach Town Council.
On Tuesday, Jan. 18, council members discussed three facets of the restoration process involved in that particular challenge during three administrative agenda items. The results were approved action to open bids for construction and restoration of the Mound House and postpone the invitation to bid for construction of the proposed observation/fishing pier off its property.
Town Manager Terry Stewart began the first item discussion with a monthly updated report on the overall restoration. He quickly gave way to Project Manager Cathie Lewis, the town’s public works director, who supplied a detailed account of a landscaping delay.
“We held a construction meeting yesterday (Jan. 17), and the good news is there might be another deductive change order associated with the electrical work,” said Lewis. “The bad news is they encountered a conflict with a sanitary line putting in the storm water structures which requires a conflict box to be installed. It will cause the project to be delayed. I anticipate a 15-day delay.”
The delay is not expected to impact the completion date. Other landscaping work is expected to continue during the design and manufacturing of the conflict box.
“Fortunately this comes early in the project, and gives us time to get it resolved,” said Stewart.
Vice Mayor Bob Raymond stuck to his guns on his expectations of site development work being completed by the end of spring. The town purchased the 2.8-acre property in 2000, but even though the grounds have been open to foot traffic, the house remains closed and under construction with expectations to restore some of it to its 1921 historic parameters.
“I still want that done by the end of April,” said Raymond. “I want people to be able to go there and see the exhibit open.”
The second item discussion focused on building requirements of Florida Communities Trust and the Division of Historical Preservation. Although a historic preservation certified architect must be connected to the documents, general contractors are not required to be certified. Some parts were recognized as needing historic restoration.
“FCT communicated that there were no specific requirements on their part on a contractor to have any kind of historic preservation certification,” said Stewart. “They did encourage the town to try to select someone who has some background on doing work of that nature whenever possible.
“This is not an opera building. It doesn’t have fancy molding and things of that nature. It’s a fairly basic type of a building.”
Stewart suggested asking bidders to provide alternative methodologies to accomplish both historic and regular construction plans. He mentioned a two-year time frame for museum pieces to be installed and ready for the public.
“If there is a small gap in getting the restoration done in its final format and doing some work now, do you really just want to do little bit of work and spend more money a year or two down the road? We need to get information that can help you understand that,” said Stewart.
Before making the motion to authorize staff to proceed with an invitation to bid for remaining construction/restoration of the Mound House, Councilman Tom Babcock made a clarification.
“The key is to make sure we have a certified architect, and I think we are getting way beyond the purview of the policy decisions,” he said. “This is just about restoring the house.”
The third and final aspect of Mound House preparation centered on the building of an observation pier to fulfill responsibilities of executed grant agreements with the Lee County Tourist Development Council.
The structure is a proposed 50-foot extended offshore decking which is the ire of neighbors of the Mound House due its fishing use element. At the Jan. 3 meeting, council urged staff to ask the TDC if the word ‘fishing’ could be eliminated out of the name due to near-by Beach residents assuming the pier would be used more as a public fishing pier. The response was the elimination would make the pier ineligible for TDC funding.
Much discussion, with pro and con public input, surfaced on the issue. Ideas such as getting the pier gated and building an observation tower to remove the fishing element and make it less obtrusive over the waterway, were bounced around.
In the end, council decided to hold off on the invitation to bid for construction of the pier until after the house is open.
“Let’s keep the focus on opening the excavation and getting the landscaping done,” said Councilman Alan Mandel, who made the motion to delay. “There’s no need to make a decision tonight.”