A pavilion on the riverfront at Kimmswick looks like it could be open to the public by the end of the year.
The Jefferson County Council voted 6-0 on June 12 to approve spending $176,925 to build the open-air facility, intended as part of a county park to be built near the dock that accommodates riverboat cruises that land at Kimmswick. The park will include a playground and amphitheater.
The council awarded the contract to the second-lowest bidder, Integra Inc., St. Charles.
The pavilion will be a design-build project, which means that Integra will hire a design firm to draw up the plans, then Integra will build to those specifications.
The 30-by-22-foot metal facility will be built south of the old boathouse on the Mississippi River.
“If all goes well – and everything about the construction industry seems to go slow nowadays – this should be open by the end of the year, probably,” said Parks Department Director Tim Pigg. “Hopefully, they’ll start building sometime around September.”
Pigg said representatives from the lowest of four bidders, No Limit Contracting of De Soto, missed a mandatory meeting with county officials. No Limit’s bid was for $168,872.
“That’s unfortunate,” Pigg said, “but we waited around for a half-hour more in case they were bogged down. Usually, the contractors are waiting for us, though.”
In January, No Limit seemed like a lock for the job, as its $172,341 bid submitted in 2022 was the lowest of four, but the County Council failed to approve the contract, citing concerns that restrooms were not a part of the project.
The project needed to be rebid because a 45-day window to award a contract expired.
Pigg said he arranged a tour of the site soon after the meeting with council members.
“The tour went well,” he said. “Mr. (Charles) Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) said he believed it needed restrooms, and we agreed to add them to the plans.”
The County Council in April awarded a $62,508 contract to Cowboy’s Cranes-SCE, Inc. of Villa Ridge to install a vault restroom, which would include separate quarters for men and women.
“It’s essentially a large concrete vault in the ground that works similar to a septic tank,” Pigg said.
“We have them in our river accesses, which is why we went this way in Kimmswick, because it will eventually flood.”
The money to pay for the restrooms, as well as the pavilion, will be drawn from the $43.6 million the county received through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
ARPA money also will pay $15,000 for eight concrete tables, each weighing about 2,000 pounds. Each would be anchored to the concrete floor in at least two places.
“They won’t be floating away in a flood,” Pigg said.
Pigg said the council will be asked to approve that contract soon.
The picnic tables were included in the bids submitted in 2022, but were not included in Integra’s winning bid, but rather an add-on contract that the council will be asked to approve soon.
Council member Dan Stallman (District 6, De Soto) was absent from the June 12 meeting.