The new owners of John Asquaga’s Nugget are planning to remodel the exterior building façade fronting Victorian Avenue and demolish the Last Chance Joe “feature” that currently resides there. The new owners have indicated that they have no interest in keeping Last Chance Joe but have offered to allow the feature to be removed and relocated as long as it is done very quickly and at no expense to the Nugget. City staff put together an informal bid package for the relocation to City property along the west side of the C Street Parking Garage and solicited bids in April 2014. Bids were opened on April 17, 2014. The low bid of $59,200 was provided by Huston Smith Construction. One additional bid of $97,435 was provided by Lepori Construction.

City staff has researched potential funding options for the work and identified the City’s Capital Project Fund (Fund 1404) as the appropriate source of funds, should the City Council want to award a construction contract. The source of budget authority for Fund 1404 is annual transfers from the General Fund. City staff suggests the City Council consider the following points as it discusses whether or not to move forward with the award.

1.  Using Fund 1404, Program #13-1005, would take budget authority from the City Hall Electrical Upgrade Project. There are two consequences that could occur by using this funding source. The first one is that the City Hall Electrical Upgrade Project is not complete and with unknowns remaining, there could be change orders requiring additional funds. The other consequence is that any remaining funds in this account were anticipated to be used as an additional funding source for the upcoming City Hall HVAC Project. By using this funding source for Last Chance Joe the City Hall HVAC Project could be under funded. We will not know until the feasibility study and final estimate are provided in the coming months. The City Hall HVAC project is scheduled to bid in early fall.

2.  In the FY15 Tentative Budget, the City Council approved a reduction in transfer for Capital Projects from its historic rate amount of $1,300,000 to $240,000 in an effort to balance the General Fund budget. This was accomplished by deferring previously planned facility projects.

3. City staff understands that private efforts for fund relocation have been unsuccessful.

1.  Approve a construction contract with Houston Smith Construction in the amount of $59,000 with funding coming from Fund 1404, Program #13-1005.

2.  Not approve a construction contract.