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<br />Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting <br /> <br />March 8, 2011 <br /> <br />Sunny Isles Beach, Florida <br /> <br />expect to have the parking garage TCO by March 31, 2011. The roadway is complete, we are <br />going through the Fire Department to finalize a couple of things, and we expect A ventura <br />Beach complex to commence use of the garage as of April 1, 2011. The remainder of the <br />Park will be completed by the end of May 2011. <br /> <br />Public Speakers: Gerry Goodman <br /> <br />Mayor Edelcup thanked staff and noted that the cover memo does a good job of where we <br />were, how we started, and where we are today, in addition to the three or four meetings that <br />have taken place since the last Commission meeting with all the active parties involved in <br />trying to bring this project to fruition. He also noted that GilDezer volunteered his services <br />and they were very much appreciated because they helped bring everything into focus and <br />also achieved some of the cost savings on this last $850,000 Change Order, and so he wanted <br />to officially thank him for his effort in helping to bring this closer to completion. What is <br />important is that we are trying to make sure that we get the Project done on time, particularly <br />to get the garage opened by the end of March so that we can start achieving the revenues <br />from the garage while at the same time also permitting development of the basketball area <br />where cars are currently parked today under the Lehman Causeway. He also thinks that we <br />should be able to celebrate the opening of this Park in concert with the City's 14th <br />Anniversary weekend in the middle of June. He sees where it is expected the Park will be <br />opened by the end of May and he is hoping that means that the landscaping will be in place, <br />and Acting City Manager Vera confirmed that it would be. <br /> <br />Vice Mayor Thaler said that we need covers for the playground area for the children, it is <br />very important especially in the summer. <br /> <br />Commissioner Scholl said we are committed in this one and have to finish, however, this is <br />not the last park we are going to build as we have a lot of land down south and we are going <br />to do this again. His frustration lies in that we get a lot of professionals involved and we end <br />up in the same place. Obviously management changes within the staff doesn't help matters <br />but going forward, we need professional scheduling. The next park that comes along, he is <br />going to personally manage because he brought it up this time and had said that we need <br />professional scheduling to keep the contractor honest. Once again we got a schedule in the <br />beginning, he assumed staff was going to update it, and we were going to get regular reports <br />on slippage, however, nobody followed through and all of a sudden we are down the road <br />with a delays and nobody can explain why. The thing is that it is not that hard to fix, and that <br />is what really bothers him, it is the scheduling. When you are an owner on a construction <br />project, all it is, is construction management and with good scheduling it is not that difficult. <br />While he is supportive of what we need to do here because we are committed and we have to <br />get the Park finished and the garage opened, in going forward, we need to find that resource <br />and he doesn't mean Calvin Giordano, he thinks we should go to an outside resource that <br />specializes in it that we hold accountable to, and if you need help on that in the future, he <br />would be glad to help. <br /> <br />Commissioner Aelion asked ifthere was a time at the inception of the Project where a ceiling <br />was set to around $14 Million, and Acting City Manager Vera said that was at the very <br />beginning when we first thought about it. Commissioner Aelion said that Commissioner <br /> <br />3 <br />