Higher costs could mean city has to apply for more grant funding

By John McLoone

PRESCOTT – The City of Prescott project to expand the Prescott Food Pantry building has hit another snag.

The city council was told at a meeting in early June that there’s a chance that the project, which has swelled in size from about $950,000 to more than $1.4 million will have to be rebid.

Engineer Seth Hudson of Cedar Corp. warned the council that the city may have to solicit new pricing for the project, because bids were received in March and were only good for 90 days.

The city was approved for grant funding through the federal Coronavirus Community Development Block Grant program administered by the state Department of Administration. The city purchased the building last year that houses the Prescott Food Pantry at 911 Pearl St. for $349,000. The site is the former pool and community building for the River Heights Motel. The proposal will allow the food pantry to expand to the needs of the community. In addition, there will be a meal prep kitchen in the building, which would allow for the food pantry to buy larger quantities and repackage food. It also could be used for community meal preparation. There will also be on-premises COVID testing.

The city initially agreed to a grant of $945,000 for the project.

The project was put out for bid in the spring, and the low bid from Market & Johnson came in at $1,025,000, which was $519,000 more than anticipated.

Because of that, the city applied for additional funds under the grant in the amount of $464,000, and that was approved.

However, the fear now with inflation and scarce building materials and fixtures, the project will come

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up short again when bids are received. That would likely put the city in a position where they have to ask for more grant money again.

The bids will be publicly opened July 14 at the office of Cedar Corp. in Menomonie.

The project timeline, which already has been pushed back, will be moved out even further “It’s unfortunate, but the bids were outside the time limit, so we’re forced to bid the project again,” said City Administrator Matt Wolf.

He said that if the city has to ask for additional grant funding, that takes time, and that’s why the project has had to be rebid in the first place.

“That’s the worry, that we’ll run into that situation,” Wolf said. “If the bids come in significantly higher, do we have to ask for more money again. We have to wait and see what the bids look like.”

The project was originally slated for completion by the end of this year.