Council awards water park contract to Sampson Construction

COLUMBUS - Let the construction begin.

On Monday, the Columbus City Council awarded a contract to Sampson Construction of Lincoln in the amount of $5,459,000 for construction of the Pawnee Plunge Water Park.

Sampson's was the low bidder on the project.

Bids for the project came from five contractors - Sampson Construction of Lincoln, Erickson Construction of Blair, Carrothers Construction Co. of Paola, Kan., Ricchio Inc. of Gurney, Ill., and Mechanical Inc. of Freeport, Ill.

Carrothers, Ricchio and Mechanical submitted bids for portions of the project, while Sampson and Erickson submitted bids for all three projects.

With the council's approval, construction is set to begin May 16, said Chuck Thomerson, public works and environmental services director. A pre-construction meeting will be Friday. Final completion is scheduled for April 1, 2006.

The council's action ends more than a year of planning for the facility, which included a special election for approval on a half-cent sales tax and two rounds of bidding.

Earlier this year, the city rejected the first set of bids because they came in almost $1 million over budget. The rejection meant the city had to postpone the construction and opening date. Engineers from Burbach Aquatics, the Platteville, Wis., company overseeing the construction, had hoped the water park would have opened this summer.

But the second round of bidding postponed that to the summer of 2006, leaving the city without an outdoor swimming facility for a second straight summer.

The city's former facility, Pawnee Park Pool, was closed last year because of its aging condition.

Monday's approval of the contract was good news to Nathan Staroscik, mayor of the Junior City Council, which not only studied the issue of a water park for the city, but also held a contest to name the facility.

"I want to thank everyone for their hard work to get a water park in Columbus," Staroscik said at Monday's meeting.

Councilman Ron Bogus said he was thankful to Staroscik and the Junior City Council, whom he said attended meetings of the water park committee.

"Nathan was a tremendous asset to the committee who worked on this project," said Bogus, who was a member of the committee.

The approval also was good news to Council President Jim Bulkley, who was chairman of the committee.

"I'm extremely excited that we have gotten here," Bulkley said this morning. "When we had to reject (the bids) earlier this year, everyone felt extremely bad, but we were very hopeful that we could redo it and come in under budget."

While he knows that residents are disappointed that there will not be an outdoor pool this summer, Bulkley said he thinks those thoughts will change when the water park opens.

"When the citizens see what we end up with, the two summers without a pool being open will be forgotten quickly," Bulkley said.

Mayor Mike Moser said he's "very happy" with the second round of bids, and he too is excited about the opening.

"It will be a very nice facility and be an asset to Columbus," Moser said.

Among the offerings at the Pawnee Plunge Water Park will be a lazy river and four slides: an open flume slide, an inner tube slide, a swirl bowl slide, and either a closed flume slide or a speed slide. All of the slides would have different heights and speeds.

Thomerson said Sampson's bid does include a concrete paving of the main parking lot. The city had previously thought the concrete paving would not have been possible to get the project under budget. The city will apply for funding from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for concrete paving of a second parking lot, Thomerson said.