Madison error adds to park project price tag

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By Paul Snyder

Madison planners made a $56,300 mistake while writing the design contract for the redevelopment of Lisa Link Peace Park.

Urban Park Redevelopment

“It was an oversight or omission,” said Alderman Mike Verveer, who represents the park’s district and has supported the project for years. “I’m not going to harp on what happened in the past, but there were staff changes with park planners and there were a bunch of missteps and miscommunication.”

The Madison Common Council on Tuesday will decide if the mistake can be corrected with a vote on increasing by $62,300 the city’s Peace Park design contract with Madison-based Ken Saiki Design Inc.

About $6,000 of the increase would pay for redesigns city staff members requested last year for construction of the 992-square-foot visitors center and restroom building in the park on State Street.

But most of the contract increase will pay Saiki Design to provide on-site management during construction this year. That includes managing change orders and ensuring construction meets design specifications.

“The additional services weren’t part of the original contract,” said Ken Saiki, Saiki Design owner. “We’re going to be visiting the site every week and have construction meetings on the project every two weeks. These aren’t normal design services. We had anticipated city staff to handle this.”

City staff members usually do the work, but Saiki already was working on the park designs and had deeper insight into the project specifics and requirements by the time the city realized it had overlooked its role in the job, he said. So, Saiki said, city planners opted to add the management responsibilities to his contract.

The city in 2001 began planning the redevelopment of the park, which is less than a half-acre. Despite many proposals, including building a vintage carousel or using the area for condo, retail and parking space, nothing materialized.

City planners then tried to link park redevelopment to a multiyear State Street reconstruction project. But, Saiki said, discussion of a visitors center started late and upset the timing of tying the two projects together.

The city assured the redevelopment, estimated at about $1 million, by setting aside money in the 2009 budget. The project will be paid for with $565,000 from a tax-incremental financing district, $385,000 from private contributions and $80,000 of contingency money for budget overruns.

City staff members last year projected Saiki’s initial visitors center would push the project beyond budget by about $100,000, so the center was scaled back. But Kay Rutledge, Madison parks development manager, said she does not expect the contract increase will threaten the budget.

But there are no guarantees, Verveer said, until the city opens project bids, which are due Friday and will be opened Jan. 28. He said bids on public works projects have come in under bid, giving city officials good reason to believe it will happen again.

“At this point, (the contract increase) is something that goes with the territory,” Verveer said. “This is a project we’ve been working on for multiple years that’s seen a lot of delays and hiccups. Hopefully this is the last.”