By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Del Rio City Council members rejected bids for the renovation of the Paul Poag Theatre and voted to advertise for a new round of bids during their most recent meeting.
The council also learned it is unlikely the historic theater will reopen before the end of the year.
The council discussed the theater renovation project during its regular meeting March 10.
After City Secretary Mari Acosta read the agenda item, Mayor Al Arreola called for a motion on a resolution to authorize Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez “to reject all bids for the Paul Poag Theatre Rehabilitation Project Phase III due to multiple errors in the calculation of bids received and re-advertise and give notice of the request for bids.”
Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus said, “As painful as it is, I make a motion to have the interim city manager reject all bids.”
Councilman J.P. Sanchez seconded the motion.
Before the vote, Arreola asked, “Is this going to start from scratch all over, with the design?”
Sanchez, who owns and operates a construction company, responded, “No, it doesn’t start from the design phase. They might go back and do some clarifications and try to give the contractors more clarity, because everybody read it differently.”
“Every contractor that bid on it?” Arreola asked.
“Yes,” Sanchez replied.
Arreola said, “You know, we’ve been waiting for three years now, the delays of this, and I thought we had already sealed the deal on this, but apparently not.”
Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. then addressed Victor Montes Jr. of Able City, the company contracted to provide architectural and design services for the project, who attended the meeting via video link.
Lopez reminded Montes that during a previous presentation, he had asked whether Able City would contact contractors experienced with similar projects once the city began advertising for bids.
“What I’d like to know, sir, is do you or do you not have contractors (who do) this kind of rehabilitation?” Lopez asked.
Montes said Able City had reached out to several contractors during the first round of bidding but noted there were errors in all submitted bids.
Architect Rick Solis, also of Able City, added, “We did reach out to different contractors, and we are hoping that now with more time, we can get them to come back to the table. I do know that, like Victor mentioned, one bidder showed up right as we were closing the door, so their math was off. We can’t do the arithmetic for them, so we’re hoping now that with more time, everyone that’s going to bid on it will rebid, but we’ll certainly make more calls and make sure we get as many people to look at this as we can.”
In response to another question from Lopez, Montes said the bid language will be edited “to make it a bit clearer.” He added the bid package will include checklists contractors must initial to confirm they reviewed all paperwork and submitted the required documents.
Lopez then asked who was responsible for failing to provide proper paperwork to prospective bidders.
Montes replied, “The bidders did not submit the paperwork. Not us. We were not missing the information. They did not submit with their bids.”
Arreola said, “Let’s go out for bids and see if we can get somebody.”
The mayor then recognized Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez, who asked whether the project would have met its original timeline had a successful bidder been selected.
Solis replied, “No, it probably would have pushed a little bit to late summer, early fall, just because I think the contractor would need a good six months at least to get it going.”
He added the city extended the bid deadline multiple times to allow contractors to visit the site.
“We had two formal site visits, so we really tried to give both local and out-of-town contractors ample opportunity to get familiar with the building,” Solis said. “It’s unfortunate that we had to take this step, but I think in fairness to all the bidders, this is probably the best way to move forward.”
Gutierrez noted the bid packet mentioned adding a bidder’s checklist and said it may have helped earlier.
Solis responded the checklist was included but will be expanded.
“We’re going to add three or four more items to really hammer it home,” he said. “The format we’ve used has worked for many years, but in this case we’ll take a ‘belts and suspenders’ approach to make sure everything is covered.”
Gutierrez then asked for a realistic timeline if the next round of bidding is successful.
Solis said, “I’m still going to hold myself to six to eight months, so if we can get it here in the next month or so, maybe by the end of the year we can have the theater open again.”
Montes added the tentative bid opening is scheduled for April 8.
Arreola asked for any final questions, and Sanchez noted two of the previous bids exceeded the project budget.
“If you want to be realistic, it ain’t going to happen,” Sanchez said.
The council then unanimously approved DeReus’ motion.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
