Although the city received only one bid after contacting 21 companies, that bid came in lower than the city’s original estimate for the project.

The council decided to hire Meridian Contracting Services of Alpena to build the bathrooms, which will also have a small pavilion attached. Work on the project is expected to begin in the spring and should be completed in the fall of next year, Alpena City Engineer Steve Shultz said.

Several years ago, Alpena received a $300,000 Michigan Department of Natural Resource Trust Fund grant for the project, and the city decided to use a portion of the $1 million it received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to cover the balance.

The original cost estimate, done by the city, was for $812,000, but Meridian’s bid came in at $805,200.

Courtesy Image An artist’s rendering of the bathroom facility set to be constructed at Bay View Park is seen in this image provided by Alpena.

The project will also include sidewalks and lighting near the new structure.

Shultz said that, after only receiving one bid, he contacted the other contractors who didn’t bid on the project to find out why. He said most of those companies had already filled their 2025 calendars and didn’t have a way to squeeze the project into their schedule.

Shultz told the council that it was important to hire Meridian now and not move forward with another round of bids because the local contractor’s schedule for next year was also filling up fast.

“After receiving only one bid, staff reached out to everyone on the bid list inquiring about the reason they did not bid,” Shultz said in a memo to the council. “Most of the responses indicated that the contractors already have a full schedule for 2025 construction season and did not have the staffing available to do another project of this size. For this reason, we believe it is not warranted to rebid the project and could in fact be detrimental to do so as the potential exists for Meridian to possibly add additional work to fill their schedule as well.”

The city has worked with Meridian before. Shultz said it was the prime contractor on both a trailhead project on Woodward Avenue and Meridian constructed the restroom facilities at Starlite Beach, which closely mirror the architectural design of the Bay View project.

For years, park visitors could use a restroom facility across the street from the entrance to the city harbor near the park, but that facility has been out of service for several years because maintaining it became too costly.

Since that facility’s closure, the city has rented portable bathrooms near the park and harbor, but that comes with a hefty bill, as well. The city says that, as usage of the park increases and more events are held there, the need to build a new restroom becomes more prominent.

“The old restrooms were pretty rough and we needed to demolish them,” Shultz said. “Since then, we have needed something over there.”

The new restroom facility at the park is one of two planned for the downtown area. Another new restroom facility will be built next year as part of a planned renovation of Culligan Plaza, near the Alpena Downtown Development Authority office.

The only public restrooms today in downtown Alpena are the portable bathrooms near the harbor.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on X @ss_alpenanews.com.