Requests for qualifications are in for Mount Olive Library
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 7, 2013 1:50 AM
A review of the seven design/build teams interested in building the new Steele Memorial Library in Mount Olive is expected to get under way this week -- a week ahead of schedule.
This past Tuesday at 2 p.m. was the deadline for teams interested in the project to respond to Wayne County's request for qualifications.
The responses, announced during Tuesday's Wayne County commissioners' meeting, are not bids. Rather the teams were asked to include a team profile, their experience, how the team would approach the job and its understanding of the project.
In design/build, an architect and general contractor form a team, which works under one contract with the project owner, in this case the county, to provide both design and construction services.
The teams (listed in order of design firm/contractor) that responded were: Hite Associates of Greenville/Bordeaux Construction Co. of Durham; Brennan Architects of Columbia, S.C./Hudson Brothers of Greenville; SFL+A Architects of Fayetteville/Barnhill Contracting of Raleigh; Darden J. Eure III & Associates of New Bern/Group III Mgt., Inc; Smith Engineering & Design of Goldsboro/Jackson Builders of Goldsboro; Dunn & Dalton of Kinston/Daniels & Daniels of Goldsboro; and MHA Works of Greenville/TA Loving of Goldsboro.
Commissioner Ray Mayo, chairman of the board's Facilities Committee, said he, commission Chairman Steve Keen and county purchasing manager Noelle Woods, would "be getting together with several people" to look at the qualifications.
"We will make sure that everything is legal and that everybody can bid on it without any problems and stipulations," he said. "That is going to happen early next week, and just as soon as possible we are going to move to get the bids on this."
County Manager Lee Smith said he wanted the public to realize that the Facilities Committee was not conducting the review.
"The staff (will) and then we will call a couple of key folks in, but our office will be reviewing the RFQs," Smith said. "Then the staff will be sending to the Facilities Committee for formal review and recommendation to the (full) board."
The county has not established a deadline as to when the library project might get under way. However, a completion time of 10 months or less is favored because of space limitation at the existing library on Chestnut Street.
The library was included in the board's recently adopted capital improvement plan for 2013-14 at an estimated cost of $3.5 million. However, projects costs are estimated at $120 per square foot for a total of $2,426,160.
The project will renovate the former Belk department store building on West Main Street in Mount Olive to house the library. The county purchased the building in November 2008 for $400,000 from Mount Olive College.
The Steele Memorial Library Steering Committee spearheaded a grassroots fundraiser that raised more than $350,000 to pay for the design work for a project to renovate the 20,218-square-foot building to house the library.