Woodward, Okla. — Woodward City Commissioners have finally approved quotes for the parking lot project at the Lakeside 6 movie theaters.

Progress on the parking lot improvements for the new 6-screen cineplex was delayed after no bids were initially received on the project.  This led the city to switch to a request for quotes process, during which time city officials dealt directly with contractors to get quotes for the project.

Commissioners were first slated to consider quotes for the parking lot project during their July 2 meeting.  But at that time, Assistant City Manager Doug Haines said he hadn't received all the quote information he needed and the matter had to be tabled.

However, Haines was able to present commissioners with a quote tabulation during their recent meeting on Monday, July 16.

Quotes were received from contractors Tom Hudson and Kline Mechanical, who were asked to provide quotes on a variety of project line items, which ranged from removal of the current asphalt, to the laying of new asphalt and the pouring of concrete curbing and sidewalks, to the construction of "cast-in-place" islands.

This brought in initial quotes of $190,336 from Tom Hudson and $113,472 from Kline Mechanical.

However, Haines explained that since the contractors each presented quotes on different line items, certain disallowances had to be made.

The only items that both contractors provided quotes for were concrete curbing and sidewalks and for the cast-in-place islands. So the quotes for those line items were totaled and compared with Hudson quoting $84,379.78 and Kline Mechanical quoting $80,519.

City commissioners approved going with Kline's lower bid, with affirmative votes from Mayor Roscoe Hill and Commissioners Gary Goetzinger and Steve Bogdahn.  Commissioner Michelle Williamson abstained because her husband works for Kline Mechanical, and Commissioner Bill Fanning was absent from Monday's meeting.

But since Kline's contract doesn't include removing the current asphalt or laying new asphalt, Haines said the city will have to use other resources for that aspect of the project.  He said the asphalt removal will be done "in-house" by city workers.

The laying of new asphalt as well as putting seal coating on the new asphalt will be done as part of the city's current street overlay contract with Circle S contractors, Haines said.  Under that contract, Haines said it will cost the city "around $18,000" for the new asphalt and another $15,000 or so, "depending on quantity," for the seal coating.

This is much lower than the quotes of over $46,000 for new asphalt and over $31,000 for seal coating that were obtained from Tom Hudson.

Altogether, the city will pay around $150,000 for the new parking lot at the movie theaters, when including an almost $33,000 bid for lighting, which Haines said will also be provided by Kline Mechanical.

When asked by Bogdahn how long the project will take, the assistant city manager told commissioners "we're not requiring it to all be done by the end of August, but we are requiring that they have those portions done by the end of August that are crucial to the opening of the theaters.  After that, they can work around the theaters' schedule."

Haines later told The News, "we'd like to have everything done (on the parking lot) by the end of September."

The Lakeside 6 parking project was the main item on the city commissioners' agenda Monday.   The only other items before the commissioners were listed under their consent agenda, including 4 different budget amendments:

• Amendment No. 1 to the FY 2012 Grant Fund Budget in the amount of $105,979.53;

• Amendment No. 1 to the FY 2012 Airport Fund Budget in the amount of $117,148.77;

• Amendment No. 4 to the FY 2012 Restricted Revenue Fund Budget in the amount of $734,953.28;

• and Amendment No. 1 to the FY 2012 Hotel-Motel Fund Budget in the amount of $8,622.23.

Haines explained that the budget amendments are routine because "at the end of any fiscal year, you have adjustments that have to be made to your budget to bring balances back to alignment."

He said the amendments that were approved Monday essentially "appropriate revenues that were received but not budgeted to offset with the expenditures that were approved throughout the year."