The Hermosa Beach City Council Tuesday night unanimously voted to eliminate and change several features to the third phase of the pier renovation project after learning the project was estimated to be $1 million over budget.

The project will now go out to bid at the beginning of April and the city hopes to award the contract by mid-May with construction spanning 10 months beginning in mid-June. City officials hope to complete the project by April 2005.

In recent weeks, a subcommittee which included City Councilmen Peter Tucker and Sam Edgerton, brainstormed ideas of how to bring the long-awaited plan back down to its appropriate cost estimates.

Architects from Purkiss Rose were on hand with their new drawings of the project and to answer questions from the city. Councilman J.R. Reviczky posed the question of how the project’s bid estimates were so much more compared to Purkiss Rose’s figures.

“I cannot really tell you as to why we weren’t on the mark with the cost estimates,” said architect James Pickel. “There are so many variables, one being that we are in a war right now and construction materials are continuing to go up. We don’t know exactly how much they are going up but we do know they are.”

During its last meeting, the Hermosa Beach City Council approved an amendment to its service agreement with Purkiss Rose for no more than $50,000 to revise plans to the third phase of the city’s pier project to meet the new cost figures. The proposal of what exactly the city ended up eliminating came before the entire council for a vote last night.

In early January, the City Council agreed to reject the only two bids that were submitted for the project. Metro Builders & Engineers Group bid about $4.4 million and H.A. Lewis Inc. bid around $5.4 million that were approximately $986,000 and $1.9 million, respectively, over the city’s estimates. The city priced the project at about $3.4 million.

The City Council agreed to house county lifeguards in a locale such as a hotel rather than build a temporary headquarters on the beach just north of the pier that would have cost $125,000.

“We took a look at what we could change without changing the charm of the project and we did have to make some hard decisions,” said Edgerton to Pickel. “It was not a good feeling to be so off the mark. The bottom line is that we pay you to know what contractors will charge so we are not in this kind of a position. I feel this is your last shot and I will have no problem voting to get rid of you. It’s just business, pure and simple, because time is really of the essence with this project.”

According to Public Works Director Richard Morgan, the cost may have risen due to the work and effort in relocating the lifeguards to a temporary facility and their emergency services communications lines that will now go out to bid separately.

The council voted to eliminate the observatory and its ADA ramp, handrailings and lighting associated with this part of the plans that will save the city $248,000. The council also agreed to eliminate the dark concrete ($37,000) which is the same kind of concrete on the plaza that would have been the base material in the plaza area at the base of the pier, along with materials of the interior of the bathrooms and the new lifeguard headquarters. The total savings with the deletions and changes to the project is about $625,000.

According to both Tucker and City Manager Steve Burrell, the high price of the bids for the project was partly due to the 20-percent rise in construction costs and materials since the city began the task of designing the project.

The City Council began voting on changes and designs for the plans in 2000 that centered on the base of the pier just west of The Strand and pier plaza. The original plans called for newly reconstructed lifeguard headquarters, a new observatory and amphitheater, and renovated bathrooms. According to current plans, the new observatory that was designed to sit on the south side of the pier just east of the new lifeguard towers is now eliminated. A small amphitheater of sorts will be erected directly across from the observatory on the north side of the pier. The compass rose design, with tips of the rose consisting of copper and the outline comprising colored granite, will sit in the center of this plaza called Schumacher Plaza, an area named after Dr. David Schumacher and his wife, Margaret, a longtime Hermosa Beach couple who donated $1 million to the project.

The plaza located in the midst of these two structures will resemble an open public square with benches and planters with the phrases “City of Hermosa Beach” and “Schumacher Plaza” embossed within the concrete walls in the area. At the end of the planter wall, the city has included a flagpole at the suggestion of longtime resident John Hales.

The city will fund the project by way of the Schumacher donation, along with monies from Tyco Ltd., which were generated by a lease contract, Proposition “A” funds and the county. The city also procured $324,000 from a grant funded by the Wildlife Conservation Board.

The first phase of the project entailed the restoration of the cracked pylons along with earthquake retrofitting while the second phase included the construction of new lighting, decks, handrails, benches and fish-cleaning areas. The city began working on the first two phases in 1998 and closed the pier during construction, finally reopening it in October 2000. However, the city has paid for repairs on the pier since 1994.