Richter & Adkins Combine On Latest Demo Excuse

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City explains ‘miscommunication’ that led to $150,000 error
Updated May 03, 2018
By Ed Richter, Staff Writer

Miscommunication about a bidder’s position has resulted in that bidder not receiving the contract to demolish a downtown Middletown building and increasing the costs of the project by more than $150,000.
MORE: Middletown will pay more for theater’s demolition
Middletown City Council Tuesday approved a motion to grant a contract to Vickers Demolition for $485,000 after a motion to grant the contract to the apparent lowest bidder, Brunk Excavating, failed to get a second on a motion for that contract. Brunk submitted a bid of $327,000, while Logan Creek submitted a $433,000 bid on the project. Bids were opened on Dec. 20, 2017.
City Manager Doug Adkins said in January the city opted to do one final Requests for Proposals cycle in an attempt to redevelop the building. However, no RFP bids were submitted and the city moved to begin demolition of the Studio Theater with Brunk contacted to do the demolition.
Adkins said Brunk reportedly had timing issues and relayed they were unsure they would hold their December bid price.
“Upon further review, I haven’t found documentation to verify this,” Adkins said. “Based on the info relayed that bid price would not be held and they couldn’t start until sometime in June, we bypassed Brunk and went to Logan the second bidder.”

After a miscommunication with one demolition company, Middletown City Council has awarded a new contract to demolish the former Studio Theater. City officials said the demolition is expected to be completed by the end of May. (NICK GRAHAM/STAFF)

Adkins said with ongoing water damage to Liberty Spirits, which is connected to the former theater building, the city needed the project to start as soon as possible.

He said references with Logan Creek could not be confirmed, so the project went to Vickers, the third bidder.
Adkins said the city gave the notice to proceed with environmental abatement but did not get the contract to council for final approval.
PHOTOS: See inside the former Studio Theater in Middletown
“As preparations were made to bring the contract to council for this meeting, the miscommunication on Brunk’s position arose, and I got directly involved to find out where we really were supposed to be,” Adkins said. “At the end of the discussion, I have staff, Vickers and Brunk all with different versions of what happened and not enough documentation to support any particular version with certainty.”
He said with no clear documentation to rely on, he had to fall back to lowest and best bid which was Brunk. Adkins said that Vickers was understandably angry at the decision and that he placed the Brunk contract on the Motion Agenda for council consideration. He said the goal is to go with the lowest and best bid, but City Council can award a contract to company with a higher bid amount.
“It’s not a good situation, but again I cannot bring you a $157,000 higher bid extra because of a communication error by my staff with taxpayers dollars,” Adkins said.
He said the city could re-start the bidding process which could take another 60 to 90 days and the city would have to pay Vickers for the work already completed.
“I know its more money, but I don’t think its right,” said Councilman Steve Bohannon, who is also a contractor.
MORE: What’s next for the 90-year-old Studio Theater in downtown Middletown?
At Tuesday’s meeting, representatives from Vickers complained to council about the matter and said they had already incurred expenses doing some of the preliminary preparations and outsourced some of the asbestos abatement work. They said this would jeopardize the city’s relationship with their company, which has done demolition work for the city in the past.
Council opted not to second the motion for Brunk, and voted 4-0 on the motion for Vickers, with Vice Mayor Talbott Moon abstaining due to a conflict of interest. The demolition is expected to be completed by the end of May, Adkins said.
MORE: 2 new uses considered for former Middletown theater
When asked if anyone will be disciplined for the errors made, Adkins said that will be handled internally.
Adkins said there are always dangers when you deviate from standard operating procedure and there was no good solution to the situation.
“In this case, we were trying to mitigate water damage to the adjacent structure by getting someone on-site as quickly as possible,” he said. “When you jump into special situations, this can happen.”
Adkins said the city has already spent $12,000 in previous work to stop the water damage until we could demolish. He said the heavy spring rains created a new problem and the estimate to divert the new water problem was $30,000 to 50,000.
“You make the best decisions you can with the information available at the time,” Adkins said. “This was truly a unique situation. Any other time, we would have rejected all bids or started over or just delayed demolition while we re-evaluated the entire situation. I didn’t have the luxury of time to do that in this case.”

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Analytical Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Citizen Joined: Nov 19 2015 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 562	Post Options Post Reply Quote Analytical Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Richter & Adkins Combine On Latest Demo Excuse Posted: May 05 2018 at 10:43am
	City explains ‘miscommunication’ that led to $150,000 error Updated May 03, 2018 By Ed Richter, Staff Writer Miscommunication about a bidder’s position has resulted in that bidder not receiving the contract to demolish a downtown Middletown building and increasing the costs of the project by more than $150,000. MORE: Middletown will pay more for theater’s demolition Middletown City Council Tuesday approved a motion to grant a contract to Vickers Demolition for $485,000 after a motion to grant the contract to the apparent lowest bidder, Brunk Excavating, failed to get a second on a motion for that contract. Brunk submitted a bid of $327,000, while Logan Creek submitted a $433,000 bid on the project. Bids were opened on Dec. 20, 2017. City Manager Doug Adkins said in January the city opted to do one final Requests for Proposals cycle in an attempt to redevelop the building. However, no RFP bids were submitted and the city moved to begin demolition of the Studio Theater with Brunk contacted to do the demolition. Adkins said Brunk reportedly had timing issues and relayed they were unsure they would hold their December bid price. “Upon further review, I haven’t found documentation to verify this,” Adkins said. “Based on the info relayed that bid price would not be held and they couldn’t start until sometime in June, we bypassed Brunk and went to Logan the second bidder.” After a miscommunication with one demolition company, Middletown City Council has awarded a new contract to demolish the former Studio Theater. City officials said the demolition is expected to be completed by the end of May. (NICK GRAHAM/STAFF) Adkins said with ongoing water damage to Liberty Spirits, which is connected to the former theater building, the city needed the project to start as soon as possible. He said references with Logan Creek could not be confirmed, so the project went to Vickers, the third bidder. Adkins said the city gave the notice to proceed with environmental abatement but did not get the contract to council for final approval. PHOTOS: See inside the former Studio Theater in Middletown “As preparations were made to bring the contract to council for this meeting, the miscommunication on Brunk’s position arose, and I got directly involved to find out where we really were supposed to be,” Adkins said. “At the end of the discussion, I have staff, Vickers and Brunk all with different versions of what happened and not enough documentation to support any particular version with certainty.” He said with no clear documentation to rely on, he had to fall back to lowest and best bid which was Brunk. Adkins said that Vickers was understandably angry at the decision and that he placed the Brunk contract on the Motion Agenda for council consideration. He said the goal is to go with the lowest and best bid, but City Council can award a contract to company with a higher bid amount. “It’s not a good situation, but again I cannot bring you a $157,000 higher bid extra because of a communication error by my staff with taxpayers dollars,” Adkins said. He said the city could re-start the bidding process which could take another 60 to 90 days and the city would have to pay Vickers for the work already completed. “I know its more money, but I don’t think its right,” said Councilman Steve Bohannon, who is also a contractor. MORE: What’s next for the 90-year-old Studio Theater in downtown Middletown? At Tuesday’s meeting, representatives from Vickers complained to council about the matter and said they had already incurred expenses doing some of the preliminary preparations and outsourced some of the asbestos abatement work. They said this would jeopardize the city’s relationship with their company, which has done demolition work for the city in the past. Council opted not to second the motion for Brunk, and voted 4-0 on the motion for Vickers, with Vice Mayor Talbott Moon abstaining due to a conflict of interest. The demolition is expected to be completed by the end of May, Adkins said. MORE: 2 new uses considered for former Middletown theater When asked if anyone will be disciplined for the errors made, Adkins said that will be handled internally. Adkins said there are always dangers when you deviate from standard operating procedure and there was no good solution to the situation. “In this case, we were trying to mitigate water damage to the adjacent structure by getting someone on-site as quickly as possible,” he said. “When you jump into special situations, this can happen.” Adkins said the city has already spent $12,000 in previous work to stop the water damage until we could demolish. He said the heavy spring rains created a new problem and the estimate to divert the new water problem was $30,000 to 50,000. “You make the best decisions you can with the information available at the time,” Adkins said. “This was truly a unique situation. Any other time, we would have rejected all bids or started over or just delayed demolition while we re-evaluated the entire situation. I didn’t have the luxury of time to do that in this case.”

Analytical Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Citizen Joined: Nov 19 2015 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 562	Post Options Post Reply Quote Analytical Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: May 05 2018 at 11:00am
	Should anyone take the time to review previous posts on the Strand/Studio Theater demolition matter, they'd rediscover so much contradictory information. And, now, it's Eddie Richter to Doug Adkins rescue via this super spin yarn about what really happened over the past few months. How interesting that earlier MJ coverage tells a different story than what is now explained. Doug Adkins and his unpaid, unofficial Communications Director Eddie Richter, have a continuing credibility problem. Sad to say, it's likely that not much of anything will come from this embarrassing example of amateurish and less than honest One Donham Abbey governance. Business as usual will likely continue and city taxpayers will be the ultimate losers in the process. A bright past and an even brighter future?

MattR Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: Jan 12 2017 Location: Middletown Status: Offline Points: 201	Post Options Post Reply Quote MattR Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: May 05 2018 at 12:28pm
	Standard operating procedures weren't followed? Let's review with the Rose Furniture project; acquire property and neglect, neglect leads to roof leak, roof leak leads to adjacent property damage, adjacent property damage leads to "emergency" mode, emergency mode leads to huge waste of money. Substitute Studio Theater in above. City procedure followed perfectly. Same story. Same players.

Analytical Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Citizen Joined: Nov 19 2015 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 562	Post Options Post Reply Quote Analytical Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: May 05 2018 at 1:51pm
	Matt R, Whistersmom, VietVet, Buddhalite, Etc. - Do you remember when Doug Adkins told everyone that HUD Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) within the city limits had "MYSTERIOUSLY" declined to 895 from 1,662 units following the Butler Metro Housing Authority take over of the program? When asked for a clarification in several MUSA Blog posts, Doug Adkins said that he was through discussing this matter and has been silent ever since. Taxpayers haven't been told the cost of city staff time, consultants, expensive computer software, etc., in Doug Adkins failed mission to put HUD in its place. Do you remember all of the many Eddie Richter "fluff stories" about Doug Adkins and the "downtown" success stories involving the Manchester Inn, Snider Building, Rose Furniture Building, Vail Avenue Woodworking Shop and 1300 block of Central Avenue vacant properties, Goetz Tower, Former Senior Citizens Center and other deals? What do Middletown taxpayers have to show for the considerable number of city staff hours, gifts of city lots/and building, city lease of office space in one building, cash grants, etc.? Matt R, thanks for the reminder about the former Rose Furniture Building. What a sad reminder of past and present city managers plus Mike Robinette!

MattR Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: Jan 12 2017 Location: Middletown Status: Offline Points: 201	Post Options Post Reply Quote MattR Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: May 05 2018 at 2:41pm
	I believe Adkins was one of players in the Rose Furniture deal.