Faced with the dilemma of rising costs on two separate projects, the Frankfort City Council decided its time to try something that is fairly new with a great track record behind it.
After rejecting all bids on the Frankfort Police Station and the Aquatic Center, the City Council held a work session Monday night to determine what was next. Following an hour-and-a-half of talks, they have decided to take a leap of faith and try something they have never done — work with a new statute called BOT (Build, Option, Transfer).
“It’s the financing of the future,” said Frankfort Mayor Judy Sheets. “A lot of municipalities are using this type of financing and it seems to be very successful. It’s going to make the process speedier and we want to make sure these projects get going. The community deserves both of these projects. It has been recommended to us to put the pool and the police station in the very quote.”
Sheets explains what they are going to try and do. First, they are going to pass a resolution that allows them to use the BOT method for funding. After that, they will put out a request for quotes that actually work in this type of financial planning for cities or municipalities and hopefully get three or four people that will come in and give the city a quote.
What this new financial planning attempts to do is make the contractors and all of those involved in the project work within the final budget of each project, which Sheets said is currently at the not-to-exceed numbers of $9.5 million for the police station and $10.5 million for the aquatic center.
“Both quotes are a little bit higher than what we anticipated because of the increase in the cost of materials,” said Sheets. “I think this is our only choice.”
Sheets added this way they don’t have to go back and re-bid one or both of the projects.
Sheets also said it’s time to get this going. They are hoping to open the police station either late in 2022 or early 2023 while the aquatic center is looking at an opening in early 2023.