The city is moving ahead with construction of the Española Valley Softball Park, but at a pace that means the field won’t be ready for play before late summer.
The Finance Board, at its March 19 meeting, approved a $248,277 contract with Albuquerque-based Prime Electric to design and install lighting at the field. That should take nine to 10 weeks, said interim City Manger Joe Duran.
The city still must arrange to lay sod and install an irrigation system at the field once the lighting is completed—work that will cost another $190,000 to $200,000 and might be done in-house or locally-contracted, Recreation Director Len Cata said.
Española Valley Youth Baseball and Softball League President Joe Ortega said he’s optimistic that with the new field, the city could once again be the hub for valley softball.
The league oversees about 600 children on 46 teams who can play on two fields: Ranchitos Baseball Park and the Valdez Memorial Park field.
“Right now we’re struggling to keep fields open for kids to practice and play on,” Ortega said. “I utilize them the best way I can and we get our required 12 games in a season. It’s doable but not optimal.”
The City gave up its old softball field on Industrial Park Road in 2005 as part of a land swap with the County. The County used the land to construct the Rio Arriba Health Commons Clinic.
Since then, it’s been difficult to host tournaments and adult leagues have been almost non-existent, Ortega said.
In September, City Council approved plans for the Española Valley Softball Park, near the old field on Industrial Park Road, and was able to get a local architect to donate time to design it.
Work on the lighting was expected to start sooner but was put on hold at the Feb. 25 Council meeting. Cata presented a quote from DTS, a company that is on state contract, and hoped to see it approved. The City can enter into an agreement for work without advertising for a bid if the company doing the work is on state contract.
The Council decided against going that route. Councilor Cory Lewis was concerned that local contractors didn’t have a chance to bid on the project, so the Council moved to postpone the matter until it had options to consider.
Councilor Eric Radosevich has been an advocate for the new fields since before his election to Council. He said he contacted several local contractors about the project and found none had the necessary equipment or certifications.
Radosevich said he contacted a few more companies that are on state contract. Prime Electric and D.R.B Electric, also based in Albuquerque, submitted quotes, which were presented at the March 11 meeting.
The Council moved to have City staff prepare an “apples-to-apples” comparison, as each of the quotes appeared to include different specifications.
Duran presented the comparison at the Finance Board’s March 19 meeting—and the project once again seemed at a standstill.
“I want to know how they came about with the proposals when there was never a scope of work put out,” Councilor Peggy Sue Martinez said at the meeting. “Obviously no one was bidding on the same job. “
“How can we expect to get the best value for our buck if we don’t put out a scope of work and allow it to go out to bid?” asked Councilor Robert Seeds.
“I as much as anyone else would have liked to have seen those lights up yesterday, but not at the cost of skirting the (request for proposal) process,” Martinez said.
“On a state contract like this, the bidding has already been done,” Duran responded.
Confusion about the quotes arose because two of the contractors submitted bids with slightly different materials. In the end, the Council approved Prime Electric as the contractor for the project because its bid included the best warranty and a remote monitoring system, it found.