The remains of the old Bisbee City Hall, which is located on the corner of Arizona Street and Tener Avenue in Warren. July 17, 2023.
Bisbee’s City Council voted to approve a Tucson construction company as the contractor for the reconstruction of Bisbee’s city hall, which was destroyed in a fire six years ago.
In October, the city council voted unanimously to approve BFL Construction's $3.9 million dollar bid to reconstruct the city hall. Bisbee City Manager Steve Pauken said that the final contract itself should go to a vote during the November 21 council meeting.
On October 11, 2017, Bisbee’s City Hall, located on Arizona St. in Warren, burned down in a fire according to Bisbee Mayor Ken Budge.
Last year, the Bisbee City Council budgeted $3.2 million to rebuild City Hall. But the lowest bid at that time was $4.1 million dollars, so the city rejected the bid.
In June of this year, Pauken said that the city hoped to keep the budget for the rebuild around the $3.5 million dollar range.
The city re-bid the project in September, with the lowest bid coming in at $4 million.
According to council documents, city staff met with the contractor and negotiated cutting $76,183 from the bid cost. Some of the things removed from the bid included the city would take on the task of finishing the upstairs bathroom and doing the paving and grading work instead of the contractor.
Pauken said the funding for the project is coming from the city’s Capital Improvement Fund. He said $2 million from the insurance funds from the initial damage to the building are going towards the reconstruction costs.
If the contract is approved by the council this month, Pauken said that the timeline for breaking ground is a few weeks with construction completed within a year.
“If we’re lucky, we could be in there by Christmas of next year,” Pauken said.
By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.