Last week, Tyrone Borough opened bids received for its community swimming pool bath house accessibility project.
The borough explained the work consists of improvements to the bath house at the pool located on Reservoir Road.
Plans call for the installation of accessible water closets, accessible lavatories, accessible showers, an accessible bi-level drinking fountain, associated plumbing, toilet partitions, sidewalk replacement, vinyl privacy screen, steel door replacement, masonry partition modifications, electrical panel relocation and other work.
In January, Borough Council approved one bid aimed at upgrading another aspect of the pool; the replacement of a drainage and grating system.
The replacement was estimated at $7,500 in a Sept. 2004 letter received by the borough from its engineering firm, CET Engineering Services of Huntingdon.
The borough accepted the only bid it received for swimming pool grates from Grate Ideas from Vermont in the amount of $8,542.
However at the same January meeting, it rejected a bid of $30,572.78 for a pool access ramp from Recreonics, Inc. of Kentucky. The Sept. 2004 letter from CET had estimated the item would cost about $6,500.
In a January 2005 memo to the borough, engineer Ray Myers said, “The bid for the access ramp exceeds estimates and we recommend that this bid be rejected.
“While the access ramp specified meets ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements, the design selected by Recreonics resulted in a much higher-than-estimated cost.”
Based on that recommendation, council rejected the bid.
Myers offered an alternative to the ramp by suggesting council could consider two other means of pool access: steps to allow ingress or egress without the use of a ladder and a portable lift for ADA access. The lift could be stored and easily set up when needed, according to Myers.
Pictures of the equipment were made available to council and Myers said catalogs showed prices for the steps at less than $3,000 and portable lifts for less than $5,000. He said borough employee Gary Barr planned to visit the high school pool where similar items are in use to see if the equipment would suit the community pool’s needs.
At the time, council took no official action on those recommendations.
The borough received five bids for the work and the low base bid came from Maine’s Engineering of Tyrone for $45,100. The project bids included several alternatives; replacement of doors, painting of floors/walls, painting of ceiling, replacement of the lavatory, countertop and mirror in the women’s toilet and shower and the replacement of toilet partitions. With the alternatives, Maine’s Engineering was again the low bidder at $64,884.
The borough set up the bids so it can do all, part or none of the alternatives to the base project.
Council has yet to take any action on the bids received last Thursday. Its next scheduled meeting is on Monday, April 4, 2005.
Myers’ September 2004 letter to the borough listed 16 different improvements which could be made to the pool. The estimates for those improvements came to just more than $322,000. The borough has set aside $300,000 in its 2005 budget for the pool improvements.
In November, council decided to move forward with the project and has prioritized different aspects of it.
