Elgin OKs $500,000 in repairs to Highlands golf clubhouse
Elgin will spend more than $500,000 for repairs to the clubhouse of the Highlands of Elgin golf course, for which it considered suing the architect or contractor, officials said.
The city council on Wednesday approved the $523,706 contract with F.H. Paschen for masonry repairs due to water damage. The project will be funded by the city's share of Grand Victoria Casino revenues.
The city hired a firm to inspect the damage in 2017 and rejected a $750,000 bid for repairs in 2018 because it exceeded budgeted estimates. City officials have been working to lower that amount, City Manager Rick Kozal said.
Golf courses will be allowed to reopen May 1. The repairs will take about three months with "minimal impact" on golfers, city spokeswoman Molly Gillespie said.
Casino revenue stopped coming in last month due to mandated statewide closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some capital projects funded by that money will have to be delayed or put on hold, but it was important to move forward with the clubhouse repairs to prevent further structural damage, Mayor David Kaptain said. The structure cost about $5 million.
"We certainly could have a situation with problems that we couldn't fix and it would run into the millions of dollars," Kaptain said.
Councilwoman Tish Powell asked whether there were workmanship problems at the facility built in 2003.
"That certainly seems to be the case," Kozal said. The city looked into whether it could file a lawsuit against the architect or the contractor for some design defects, but the statute of limitations has run out, Kozal said.
Kozal didn't say when it ran out and Gillespie didn't answer a question about that from the Daily Herald.
"If we have no legal recourse, we have to bite the bullet and go forward," Councilman Terry Gavin said.
The architectural drawings for the clubhouse were done by Larson-Kramer and the construction was done by Northwest Contractors, Gillespie said.
It appears the architectural firm later changed its name to Kramer and Associates LLC, whose website listed a phone number with no voicemail and a nonworking email address. Northwest Contractors in Hampshire didn't return a request for comment.
The golf fund lost $50,000 in 2019 and finished the year with about $200,000 in cash reserves, Gillespie said. The 2020 budget projects a $1,490 surplus in the golf fund, but the pandemic is expected to reduce both those revenues and expenses.
Meanwhile, Kaptain said the council will consider at its next meeting May 13 which capital projects to put on hold.
The discussion will include postponing the installation of LED streetlights, budgeted at $2.5 million, and neighborhood street resurfacing, budgeted at $2.7 million. The city will examine whether it can use federal community development block grant funds to resurface streets in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods, Kaptain said.
Also Wednesday, the city council approved issuing $3.15 million in bonds, about one-third of the anticipated $9.5 million, for utility projects. The bonds were not sold in March because there was no market for them due to the pandemic, and some projects are being delayed, CFO Debra Nawrocki said.