Copperas Cove City Park restrooms on track for August completion

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press

More than one year after the Copperas Cove City Council approved the design/build firm for the construction and renovation of the bathrooms at City Park, and about five years after the project was part of the phase parks improvement plan, construction is well underway on new restrooms. 
There is an anticipated completion date of the last week of August 2022. 
A sign posted near the front entrance of City Park details the locations of the bathrooms and includes a brief summary of the project. 
The project includes the renovation of the blockhouse restrooms and the restrooms at Field 1 plus new construction of restrooms at Fields 4, 6 and 8. 
Demolition already began on the two existing restrooms, and construction of the new restrooms has also already begun. The sites of the three new restrooms show that the concrete slabs are ready to be poured once the rebar is put in. The wooden framing for the slab has been put in place for all three new restroom sites. 
The construction phase for the bathrooms officially began in March 2022, according to Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Stoddard, with the surveying and demolition of the old slabs and then running the utilities of water, wastewater and electricity to sites. All of the new and renovated bathrooms will have electricity and will feature lighting outside and inside. 
Stoddard estimated that the blockhouse and the Field 1 restrooms will be completed first, with the new construction finishing later, due to having to be completely built from the ground up. 
One of the setbacks with the bathroom project was in the Blockhouse restroom. 
During the demolition phase of this restroom, it was determined that CMU blocks had been removed previously during what is assumed to have been a repair to address a plumbing issue. When workers repaired these issues, they had to tear out CMU blocks but never replaced them, instead just covering that spot with plywood. When the building was being demolished, the plywood was removed, and it was determined that the entire wall needed to be replaced in order to pass inspection, Stoddard said. 
Another change was that the two restrooms anticipated to be the ADA compliant facilities ended up not being federally compliant, so the location of those two restrooms had to be shifted within the blockhouse, according to Stoddard. One end of the blockhouse will also serve as a concession stand. 
Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Stoddard had a brief message for the residents of Copperas Cove on Wednesday afternoon. 
“Thank you for your patience,” he said. “It’s been a very long road. Kevin [Keller] and I were both interim down here back in, I guess, late summer of 2019, and we kind of inherited some projects. We were finishing up with the parking lots, and then getting started on the restroom projects. It was a difficult time trying to navigate those things, but we got on track. We’ve got a few more months left, and so thank you for your patience, and they will be done soon.” 
In May 2021, the city council approved a Design/Build Agreement with G. Hyatt Construction Inc. for the project. The city council had rejected a site preparation bid for the project back in January 2020, and then in March 2020, the city council authorized city staff to submit a Request for Qualifications for restroom construction from design/build firms. In October 2020, the city council had authorized the city manager to execute a Professional Services Agreement with Elements of Architecture to act as the city’s representative. 
After receiving three submissions in February 2021, city staff requested project proposals from each firm in March 2021, with interviews scheduled for mid-April 2021. 
The contract with G. Hyatt stated that the project will include “improvements constructed on the Property consisting of a total of five buildings: one building containing a concession room, storage room, and two restrooms, and four buildings containing two restrooms each, including the design and preparing site, architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical design plans constructed in accordance with the Plans and Specifications hereinafter described.”
The total contract price for the project upon approval was $897,200, with the cost for pre-construction phase services totaling $144,450. 
A little under a year later, in April 2022, the city council approved executing the first amendment to the agreement, establishing the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) due to a cost increase. 
The city council had received an update of project cost increases back in October 2021 when city staff received the 50 percent drawings. The cost increase was due to design changes made to the two existing buildings and the inflation on building materials. 
City staff received the final cost tabulation or GMP for the project in March 2022, in the amount of $1,474,091.58.  This means the project can cost no more than this amount. 
The contract had been a total of $897,200 back in May 2021, and then $1.196 million in October. 
The city has $1.09 million of funding available Certificates of Obligation from 2017-2020 for this project, leaving the city to come up with the additional $380,471.58, which is expected to come from the 2021 Certificates of Obligation.