Maricopa City Council unanimously approved yesterday a contract amendment of more than $560,000 to ABACUS Project Management Inc. The company is providing construction and design services management for city facilities.
Among the proposed facilities are a new city hall, a regional park and an aquatics center. The contract amendment is for a fee not to exceed $562,416 for the Vekol site. According to new information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the area is within a flood plain. The city has yet to receive the official maps from FEMA, but it would need the addition funds for the design study, water control and drainage.
ABACUS was originally hired in September 2009 for $520,000. It was later awarded $2.1 million to accelerate the construction of city hall to start by November of this year. The aquatic center is to be completed in October 2013.
Groundbreaking for the approximately 50,000-square-foot city hall will be no later than March 2012, but there will be some site improvement work that will take place before then.
In another action, council approved a request from Development Services Director from Brent Billingsley for the authority to purchase land at Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway and Porter Road to be transferred to city manager Brenda Fischer.
An amount not to exceed $382,087 will purchase a right of way for the widening of a portion of the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway just east of Porter Road. The land purchase will total 11.14 acres.