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Bid For RADSS Project OK’d Costs Came In Under Projections
The low bid of just under $8 million by Salem contractor R.L. Price to construct the new Rockbridge Area Department of Social Services headquarters in Buena Vista was approved this past Thursday at an interjurisdictional meeting held at the Virginia Horse Center.
The Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors, Lexington City Council and Buena Vista City Council each unanimously approved R.L. Price’s total bid of $7,955,000 that included alternate bids of $340,000 to install solar panels on the roof of the building and $250,000 to extend Baner Lane from the 911 dispatching center to the RADSS facility.
Lexington City Council, fiscal agent for the project, is expected to formally award the contract to R.L. Price at Council’s regular meeting tomorrow, Feb. 6. Lexington City Council is to have on its Feb. 20 meeting agenda the issuance of $10 million in bonds to finance construction. The $10 million estimated costs include design, bidding, construction, construction oversight and furnishings for the RADSS building.
R.L. Price was one of seven construction companies to bid on the project. The other bids ranged from $7,960,000 to 9,606,000. The bids, opened Jan. 17, came in below projections.
The 17,299-square-foot building is to be constructed on a 6-acre site near the Food Lion at the intersection of U.S. 60 (Midland Trail) and Va. 608 (Forge Road). The site is east of land being graded for the Buena Vista Pentecostal Holiness Church’s future ball fields and building projects, and is directly behind the TAP child care center (formerly the offices for the Virginia Employment Commission).
During discussion of whether to accept the low bid, Supervisor Dan Lyons questioned the $340,000 costs to install solar panels on the building. Barry Colliers of Thompson & Litton, the firm that designed the building, said there would be an estimated 12-year payback period for the energy savings and that the solar panels were designed to last 25 years.
Supervisor Leslie Ayers responded that she felt strongly that the solar panels should stay with the project. Doing so, she said, sets an example for those who have questioned the advisability of solar energy projects that have been approved in the county. Some have suggested that solar panels belong on roofs, rather than on farmland. Here’s an opportunity to put solar panels on the roof of a government building, she said.
“I think it’s a valid question,” Lexington City Council member Leslie Straughan, said, of the question raised by Lyons. She noted that panels installed on a school in Lexington had damaged the roof and that the payback promised on the energy savings hadn’t met expectations.
The discussion then turned to whether R.L. Price’s base bid and the alternate bid for the Baner Lane extension should be accepted and consideration of the alternate bid for the energy panels deferred until more information is obtained. All agreed that the favorably low base bid needed to be accepted. Colliers said the bids are good for 60 days.
Ayers expressed frustration that inclusion of the solar panels was being questioned now when it’s long been known that they would be part of the project. Lyons said the cost savings for solar energy depended upon a federal tax rebate that he wasn’t sure would still be available. When assured that the tax rebate is still available, Lyons said he would support the inclusion of the solar panels in the project.
“If we can get the rebate, I’m fine,” said Lyons. He made a motion to have the supervisors support R.L. Price’s total bid that passed unanimously. Both city councils followed suit with unanimous support for similar motions.
After financing for the project is secured, construction should start shortly and be completed in a little over a year.
It is hoped that the region will receive $2.5 million in congressional directed spending to defray the costs of the project for the localities. Such funding was provisionally included in a spending bill earlier but has not yet been secured.
