Font ResizeTurns out the numbers inside the sealed manila envelopes Tuesday meant little.
Weeks from now, after numerous officials examine the base proposals and alternate proposals in stadium construction bids, those numbers will mean everything.
They will determine which companies build York's minor-league ballpark - Sovereign Bank Stadium. They will also determine if York gets its baseball stadium in 2007, or if budget concerns push the project back.
But Tuesday, the news - the real news - was the number of bids.
Wagman Construction, the stadium construction manager, received exactly what it wanted.
To gauge the market price of construction, Wagman wanted at least three bids - which would provide a low, medium and high range of construction costs - for the five categories involving stadium construction. All but one of those categories received three bidders.
And the four largest contracts - general trades, plumbing, electrical and heating - have at least three companies vying for contracts.
The smallest contract - sprinklers - had one bid. S.A. Comunale Co. of West Lawn submitted the lone base bid of $272,800.
The reason the numbers meant little Tuesday is the base bids could change drastically in the coming weeks. With alternate bids, the materials or brands could be changed, causing construction costs to fluctuate by thousands of dollars from the base bids.
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Previously, stadium project manager Blanda Nace listed the construction budget at $18.09 million.
Adding all the low bids received in each category Tuesday does not give a true representation of how total construction costs will compare to that number, according to Kirk. All the bids have to be examined, and alternate proposals reviewed.
Wagman Vice President Eric Menzer pointed out one electrical contract had more alternate proposals - eight - than the contract form had lines allotted for them.
If alternate proposals are accepted, it could change which companies are awarded contracts.
The York County Industrial Development Authority's board of directors will hold a work session Aug. 29 to discuss Tuesday's bids, but no action will be taken.
Officials said they expect the majority of that meeting to be closed to the public as the board works in executive session.
The YCIDA board is expected to award construction contracts at its 8:45 a.m. meeting on Sept. 5 at 144 Roosevelt Ave.
"There's really not much to say until Sept. 5," YCIDA Chairman John Krout said.
The largest contract in the project is general trades, which includes all the construction not covered in sprinkler, electrical, plumbing and heating. Lobar of Dillsburg submitted the lowest base bid ($14,814,000), followed by Hanover's Conewago Enterprises ($15,995,000) and York's Kinsley Construction ($16,783,000).
None of the three companies competing for the general trades contract worked on Lancaster's Clipper Magazine Stadium. But several companies that were awarded contracts in Lancaster submitted bids in York. Three of them submitted the lowest base bids for the categories of electrical, plumbing and sprinklers, respectively.
Reading-based Pagoda Electrical completed Clipper Magazine's electrical construction, and it submitted the lowest base bid ($2,420,000) for York's contract. Gettle of York ($2,599,900) and I.B. Abel of York ($2,579,946) also submitted bids.
Finleyville-based W.G. Tomko Contractors completed Clipper Magazine's plumbing, and it submitted the lowest base bid ($1,464,444) for York's contract. York's Walton & Co. ($1,797,550), York's Worden & Shewell ($1,926,350), and York Haven's James Craft & Son ($1,985,900) also submitted bids.
The fiercest competition for a contract could come in the heating category, where six companies submitted bids.
Worden & Shewell ($867,128) submitted the lowest base bid. Harrisburg's G.R. Sponaugle and Sons ($876,880), Reading's MBR Construction Services ($993,000), Walton & Co. ($995,780), Lancaster's Frey Lutz ($997,000), and James Craft & Son ($1,150,500) also submitted bids.
Frey Lutz completed the heating contract at Lancaster's stadium.
