A rendering of the proposed Gulfport Senior Center.City of Gulfport
Gulfport City Council voted June 20 to formally accept $1.5 million in federal funding for the proposed senior center.
“This is the actual acceptance of the funding that was placed in the federal appropriation through [former] Congressman [Charlie] Crist when he was in office,” said City Manager Jim O’Reilly. “This is a great achievement for the city to have this money for the project.”
Crist’s office told the city a year ago he’d included this item in the list of projects on a bill that advanced through the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. The FY2023 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations bill included four Community Project Funding requests, included Gulfport’s senior center. The bill later passed the House.
The resolution council approved authorized a grant agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). According to a City staff report, this money goes for “for pre-construction costs for the Multipurpose Senior Center project including, but not limited to, architectural services and construction management, civil engineering, surveying, Green Building Certification geotechnical engineering, required regulatory compliance, required environmental compliance and site preparation.”
O’Reilly told council the City could not spend this money on actual construction.
“This is for the soft costs associated with the project. Environmental studies, construction documents,” he said. “Ideally, once you go through this $1.5 million, you’ll have a set of plans you can go out to bid with.”
Specific Uses for Senior Center Federal Funds
The City can’t use these funds to pay Kinetic Fundraising. That firm leads the capital campaign for the senior center. Its representatives provided an update earlier in the same meeting.
“It is earmarked for specific tasks,” said O’Reilly of the federal money.
On a similar note, Council approved an agreement with Harvard Jolly-PBK for engineering, design, permitting, and construction of the project.
City officials said two firms submitted statements of qualifications, and a selection committee ranked Harvard Jolly-PBK ahead of Baker Barrios.
“Due to the fact that this is a federal appropriation, we have very strict procurement processes,” said O’Reilly.
Public works director Tom Nicholls said the City could not use one of its existing consultants on this project.
“The agreement is not to exceed $1.5 million. We will sit down with them and negotiate the 16 different line items in that congressional appropriation,” said Nicholls. “We’ll have a set of plans from which to build in two years.”
Council approved both measures unanimously.
To view all or part of the council meeting, click here.
