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Lowest bid to renovate Alonzo Williams Park is $400,000 over grant amount

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It was learned at the Wednesday Apopka City Council meeting that the lowest bid to renovate and build a community center at Alonzo Williams Park was over $400,000 above the grant amount of $750,000.

Dr. Ray Shackelford, an Apopka resident who often speaks during the public comments portion of the meeting asked the Council what was happening with the Alonzo Williams community center. Apopka Mayor Joe Kilsheimer then asked City Administrator Glenn Irby for an update on the project.

"We actually put it on the street for bids," said Irby. "We got three back. The grant we received was for $750,000. The bids came back and the lowest one was over $400,000 more than the $750,000 we have in the grant."

Irby went on to explain that the City is trying to understand why the bids were higher than the grant, and the timeline for action to keep the project going.

"We're trying to figure out why. We still have the grant, but we need to be under construction by the end of the year or we do stand a chance of losing it at that particular point in time. We're trying to actually value-engineer it where we can get the price lower. If that fails, then we can do a couple of things depending on what the Council wants to do. One of the things we could do is let it go, which I don't think the Council wants to do, the second would be at the budget session to try and come up with the additional $400,000-plus, and the third would be to take it from reserves."

In November of 2016, the City announced winning the federal grant and at that time believed construction would begin in 2017.

The 5,500 square feet center will be twice as large as the current building. The 5,500 square foot center is proposed to be twice as large as the current building.

Once a bid is accepted, the long-awaited project will demolish the existing structure at Alonzo Williams Park, 515 South Hawthorne Avenue, and construct a new community center in its place. The new building will be twice the size of the existing facility with more than 5,500 square feet and feature a large meeting area, offices, activity rooms and a covered entry with a vehicle driveway. It will also include paved parking along M.A. Board Street and future parking adjacent to the facility.

The federal grant is administered by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, which provides between $18 and $26 million in federal funds each year to benefit local governments.

 

Alonzo Williams Park is a three-acre facility with multi-purpose fields, outdoor basketball courts, a softball field and a playground. It also received a separate $50,000 grant through the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program to improve its recreation areas in 2016.

Alonzo Williams Park, City of Apopka

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