McLean Center Committee Dissatisfied with Proposed $50,000 Contract

A McLean Community Center committee meets in a few hours to try to finish negotiating a $50,000 contract for an engineering firm to prepare a feasibility study for the expansion and renovation of the Center.

Tonight's meeting is a continuation of last Thursday's meeting of The Capital Facilities Committee which discussed a cost proposal  from the Northern Virginia-based firm Shaffer, Wilson, Sarver and Gray.

During the meeting, which lasted slightly more than an hour, some members of the committee expressed their concerns for the very short time the firm has allocated for meeting and talked with the center board and the absence in the SWSG's proposal of items the board deemed "must haves."

The cost, according to the written proposal, includes the development of three models from which the board will be able to pick should it decide to move forward with the project. 

Community Chair Risa Sanders, said the committee must increase the amount of time it has allocated to meet with the board. She said the current day and a half worth of face time, for which the SWSG is billing more than $1,000 is insufficient.

She predicted both her committee and the full board will have several questions for the firm's representatives that would likely take a longer time to answer. Sanders also seemed dissatisfied with the cost proposal because it did not address specifically renovations dealing with office space, a rehearsal hall, the lobby reconfiguration, restrooms and storage areas.

She said the board had labeled this items as "must haves" in previous meetings with SWSG and had an expectation to see them directly mentioned in the proposal.

Of the $50,000 the board has committed to the feasibility study, almost $18,000 alone will cover the fees for civil engineering services from the sub-consultant firm William H. Gordon Associates, which is also based in Northern Virginia.

Other charges included are $4,640 for a site visit to review existing conditions and conduct a field survey, $5,800 to prepare three concept space plans and $5,150 to model those three concept space plans into building elevations.

The descriptions of the three concepts will include advantages and disadvantages for each proposal. The study will address the costs associated with the development of each of the three expansion options. The Capital Facilities Committee board is expected to meet this week with the community center's board to determine the next steps in the project.

This is another in a series of no-bid contracts agreed to by the community center's board. Sanders has previously said the firm has done a significant number of projects at the community center during the past 10 years.