Galesburg City Council
Galesburg Aldermen rejected bids to construct a new Street Division Office and Sign Shop.
The city has had its eye on making improvements to the city’s street division office for some time.
They had contemplated building a new office and sign shop and rehabbing the structure of a storage facility.
However, bids came in around $2.4 million, which City Manager Todd Thompson says is around $730,000 over budget.
“We tried to value-engineer that number down but it really just wasn’t attainable, so at this time we’d recommend rejecting these bids and then we’re going to work with the architect and look at some alternatives.”
That could potentially mean including the office space in the metal building and leaving the sign shop where it is.
Ultimately the four council members voted to reject all the bids.
Alderman Larry Cox says the street division has operated out of “sub-par” facilities for a long time, saying no other city workers have to work in facilities like these.
Director of Public Works Wayne Carl says first the city needs to get an addendum to their agreement with the architect.
Carl says likely bids would go out in late January, and probably the earliest work could start in April.
Galesburg Aldermen also approved an agreement with the new independent non-profit organization that will oversee Galesburg’s tourism efforts at their meeting on Monday night.
The three-year agreement for the Galesburg Tourism and Visitor’s Bureau is nearly identical to the one that’s been in place for the Galesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The GCVB was run by the Galesburg Area Chamber of Commerce and this agreement is being reached before the Chamber’s current agreement expires at the end of the year.
Mayor John Pritchard has said that it’s unusual for a Chamber of Commerce to operate a tourism bureau in Illinois.
The city puts in about $190,000 annually towards tourism, taken from hotel/motel tax receipts.
That figure will not change in this new arrangement.
Council also approved a lease agreement for the GTVB to use the Welcome Center on East Main Street.
The lease term starts in January and runs until the end of 2022.
