Two things were certain regarding Greensburg’s business incubator building following City Council’s April 16 special meeting—groundbreaking is still set for Friday, May 2, and the project’s contractor will be Compton Construction of Wichita.  Other than that, little was determined due to larger-than-expected projected costs and the short time available to bring costs and funding to a common level.
   While Compton submitted a base bid of $2,813,000 to erect the structure, the only other bidder—Conco Construction, also of Wichita—put in a bid of $3,166,500.  While plans for the building had been given to eight contractors, only Compton and Conco submitted bids, which wasn’t all that surprising to McCluggage Van Sickle and Perry (MVP) Architect Jeff Weiford, who was on hand at the meeting to answer questions.
   “Though we put those plans in the hands of eight contractors, I think the reason only two bid the job is that a lot of them were wary of working with LEED Platinum specifications,” Weiford said.  “I don’t think most of them felt comfortable going there.”
   Asked by City Administrator Steve Hewitt to explain why the earlier estimate of a base bid of $2.4 million had grown by $400,000, Weiford referred to the uniqueness of building this particular building in a town still a shell of its former self.
   “The contractor having to put workers up in Pratt each night (because of lack of available housing in Greensburg) is an added expense,” Weiford said.  He also referred to the added cost of getting packing/waste materials from delivered supplies to a recycling concern because of the LEED Platinum status of the work.
   Weiford also mentioned the mechanical and electrical subcontracting bids coming in respectively at $200,000 and $30,000 more than expected.  “Plus, there just hasn’t been any LEED Platinum construction done in Kansas before, much less in this area of the state,” he said.
   How soon the project can be finished is also an uncertainty, as both contractors said a completion date of August 1 wasn’t feasible.  Compton’s bid adds a $274,000 bonus for completion of the building by September 15, with a loss of $2,000 a day of that amount for each day past mid-September the completion takes.
  That extra expense and other added costs, such as LEED consultant work and contingency fees have pushed the total price tag to $3,675,975, or $675,975 more than was on hand for the building at Wednesday’s meeting.  At that time the City had $3 million for the project—a $2 million USDA grant and another million in the form of a corporate donation.
   Hewitt said he and his staff would “work with MVP to find ways to cut that figure without compromising LEED Platinum certification,” noting he and others were “still working the phones to get more donations toward this project.”  Hewitt’s assistant, Stacy Barnes, later said she thought keeping September 15 as a targeted completion date would also be a priority, and likely “one of the last” expenses to be cut.  “I know we want to see it completed as soon as possible,” she said.
   If the $274,000 bonus for a mid-September completion were dropped, the bid tabulation form submitted by MVP shows an expectation of 240 days to complete the structure, which could push completion back to early January.
   Hewitt said he hoped to have a final budget number for the project to present at the April 21 council meeting.
In other matters…
  *City Attorney Gordon Stull reported on progress made in regard to coming up with an interconnect agreement policy for residents wanting to sell back electricity generated from solar and/or wind generation.
    He again stated such an agreement could be organized around the City either deciding to develop individualized contracts with residents on a case-by-case basis, or coming up with a tariff arrangement, or a one-size-fits-all policy “where everyone’s treated the same.”
   “Tell me which way you want to do it and I’ll write it up that way,” Stull said.  He was later instructed to write an agreement employing a tariff approach, Mayor John Janssen saying “That way everyone knows the rules rather than someone trying to jew the City around.”
   Stull reminded the council that unless “you do net billing it won’t be economically feasible for people to put in renewable energy.”
  *A couple of property transactions were finalized in executive session, the first being an agreement for the City to buy the west 40 feet of Lot 11 in Block 44 of old town (site of former E Clips beauty shop) from Rick and Rhonda Engelken for $7,500.  The second was approval of Centera Bank purchasing Lots 11-15 of the southern half of the 100 block of South Main (adjacent to incubator) for $65,000.