2026 1 20 Regular Session PACKET 1

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Agenda Item 
XI. A.  Bid Award for RFP 25 -18 to Renovate Regional Park House into Parks & 
Recreation Offices. 
 
Overview 
The FY 2025 -26 approved Capital Improvement Fund budget contains $275,000 to prepare 
renovation plans and renovate the house at Regional Park into Parks & Recreation offices.  
 
Design began during July 2025 to renovate the 2,310 sq. ft. house and garage, add an 18-vehicle 
paved parking area with proper drainage, comply with ADA requirements , replace structurally 
unsound retaining walls , waterproof the basement , and bring the residential building into 
compliance with current commercial building codes where required. Additional scope of items 
not included in the bid is the upgrade of the internet connection and internal security access 
controls. After the design was completed, bid documents were prepared and distributed. On the 
deadline date of December 18, 2025, eight bids were received. Three bids were disqualified due 
to not submitting required documents. Attached are the floor plan, site plan, rendering, bid 
tabulation sheet, and recommendation of award from the architects, Allen & Hoshall.  
 
Based on the acceptable submitted bids, the lowest and most responsive bidder was GCE 
Construction (LaFollette, TN) with a bid of $816,500 or $353.46 per sq. ft. The architect and 
apparent qualified low bidder prepared  options to consider to reduce the cost of the project.  
Those options were presented during the January 12, 2026 work session. Another option could 
be to combine the lot where the house is with Regional Park in an effort to use existing parking 
spaces rather than construct 18 new ones saving about $150,000. Lastly, some of the approved 
budget items could be redirected to fund this project including $40,000 to repaint the five blue 
roofs at Regional Par k, $6,000 to replace the swimming pool slide at I
ngleside Park, and 
$125,000 to conduct repairs at the SE TN Trade & Conference Center for a total of $171,000.  
 
As an alternative to this excessive cost, the Parks & Recreation staff of four full-time employees 
could be relocated within the SE TN Trade & Conference Center  with very minor renovations 
and using modular “cubicle” furniture as shown in the attached floor plan at an estimated cost 
of $ 200,000. Another alternative would be just to have the Parks & Recreation Department 
remain at city hall and keep the Regional Park house as-is for storage and maintenance crew use.  
 
Following discussion during the January 12, 2026 work session that leaned toward rejecting all 
submitted bids and relocat ing the Parks & Recreation staff to the SE TN Trade & Conference 
Center as presented, the consensus was to place this item on the January 20, 2026 regular session 
agenda under New Business for further discussion.  
 
Action to Consider 
A motion, second, and majority vote are needed to perhaps reject all submitted bids and relocate 
the Parks & Recreation staff to the SE TN Trade & Conference Center as presented.  
 
Affected Departments 
Parks & Recreation 
12