At the Wilmette Park Board’s Monday meeting, commissioners approved a construction manager’s contract for work at Gillson Park.
“Now we’ve got an architect, we’ve got a construction manager, we’ve got the money, we have (community) feedback – we’re ready to roll, here,” outgoing President John Olvany said.
Park board commissioners unanimously approved the construction manager’s contract with Northbrook-based W.B. Olson Inc., the latest step in plans to build a new beach house at Gillson, along with plans to upgrade the beach parking lot. The district hopes to complete that work by the beginning of beach season in 2019, but limited 2017 work to professional design costs.
The base contract commissioners approved for the company sits at $25,000 for pre-construction work, which the park district has budgeted for 2017, according to Bill Lambrecht, the district’s superintendent of parks and planning.
Other construction management costs included in the contract will be paid in future years, he said. That includes a payment based on 2.5 percent of the project’s eventual overall cost, insurance payments based on .06 percent of overall insurance costs, and $315,850 in general condition costs, Lambrecht said Tuesday.
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Commissioner Ryrie Pellaton, who heads the district’s lakefront committee, said the committee changed one item in the Olson contract to allow the construction manager to attend more than three park board meetings without extra cost.
Olvany noted that plans for lakefront improvements at the park had been formulated “under a great deal of scrutiny from the community.”
Before the board voted on the contract, Olvany said of the lakefront planning undertaken by the board since its failed 2015 lakefront referendum, “We all worked together as a staff, a community, as a board … we’ve set our priorities, hired an experienced firm to work on a design … created a preliminary budget and a financing plan.”
Last December, the board chose the Woodhouse and Tinucci architecture firm to design the work, finally approving the $353,500 base contract in February. The board began searching for a construction manager in January, eventually targeting W.B. Olson.
During the board meeting, Executive Director Steve Wilson told commissioners that two public input sessions on the Gillson project, both held in March, had drawn a large number of residents: 100 people attended the first session and 80 attended the second, he said. The district has also received several hundred written or emailed comments and completed questionnaires about the project, Wilson said.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy