Casa de Esperanza reconstruction project is delayed two weeks

Jun. 29--Two weeks weren't enough for Sutter County's insurers and Hilbers, Inc. to hash out the details for a project to reconstruct the Casa de Esperanza facility in Yuba City that was heavily damaged by fire in 2016.

Discussions during that time saw Hilbers reduce its original bid of $1.4 million down to $1.255 million. However, representatives from the county's insurer -- Trindel Insurance Fund -- said without an itemized breakdown of how the local construction company came up with the figure, it's hard to agree to reimburse the county without first going back out to potentially receive a lower bid. The main issue, the county's insurer claims, is that their company estimated the construction costs at about half of what Hilbers came up with, or approximately $612,000.

During Tuesday's meeting, the board suggested the involved parties give it one more go to find a middle ground to prevent the county having to solicit bids again, which would result in a longer delay to the process.

"We'll come back in two weeks with a number and if it doesn't look like (there have been fruitful discussions), we'll be back in a week for a special meeting," board Chairman Mat Conant said.

Portions of Casa's building were destroyed in an April 2016 fire that has caused the nonprofit organization that provides services and shelter to local victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse to relocate to a temporary facility provided by Adventist Health and Rideout.

Three years later and Casa representatives are saying further delays will jeopardize the organization moving forward. They said two more weeks to find a compromise would be better than going back out to bid, which would take a minimum of 30 days.

"We cannot delay, or go out to bid again," said Marsha Krouse-Taylor, executive director for Casa de Esperanza during Tuesday's meeting. "That is so far beyond anything we can handle. So, we need the time to be able to come to a conclusion to a process that we can all agree on that doesn't include going out to bid."

Along with Hilbers agreeing to drop its cost estimate during recent discussions, the insurance company verbally agreed to up its reimbursement total to $1.1 million. Still, that would leave a shortfall of about $155,000 that would ultimately be borne by the county if it moved forward with the Hilbers bid.

"If we could come up with $150,000 -- it seems that's what we are off right now -- I think we could find that money some place," Supervisor Jim Whiteaker said.

Interim County Administrator Steve Smith warned that the shortfall could potentially grow depending on how many change orders come in during the actual reconstruction project, which would result in an even greater cost to the county.

When the board returns to discuss the topic in two weeks, supervisors will have a few different options. They can either approve the original $1.4 million bid and then subsequently approve a deductive change order to bring the overall cost down to what Hilbers and the insurance company came to a compromise on, or reject the bid altogether and either abandon the project or go back out to bid.

If they pursue the latter option, officials would schedule a special meeting -- likely in the third week of July -- to officially reject the bid and solicit another round of bidders. Hilbers, Inc. was the only company to submit a bid in the last round.

The next Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled for July 9 at 3 p.m. inside the Hall of Records Building -- 466 Second Street, Yuba City.

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