Council special session to address Mozingo center

In the news

The Maryville City Council will meet in special session at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, at City Hall, 415 N. Market St., to consider an ordinance executing a contract with E.L. Crawford Construction of St. Joseph for construction of a conference center at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.

The council will also consider an ordinance approving a change order related to the contract that is expected to lower construction costs for the center from Crawford’s original apparent low bid of $5.7 million.

Last April, Maryville voters approved an eighth of a cent on the dollar sales tax to finance the combination conference center and golf course clubhouse, which municipal officials estimated would cost around $4 million.

Only two bids were submitted. The other was from Al J. Mueller Construction, also of St. Joseph, which offered to take on the job for $6.5 million.

With both bids significantly over budget, the city opted to fire its design firm, Wertzberger Architects of Marshalltown, Iowa.

The plan now, which the council must still approve, is to retain the completed design rather than start from scratch and rebid the project.

City Manager Greg McDanel has said it is hoped the cost of center construction can be significantly reduced through “value engineering,” a process that involves using a combination of less expensive materials and more efficient construction techniques.