Richland park built without proper contract, county manager admits

An expensive and extensive “Phase II” expansion of Pinewood Lake Park is to include an amphitheater, event center and other amenities totaling $4.5 million in hospitality-tax-funded upgrades.

However, that construction is contingent on what Richland County Council decides to do next after the initial phase of design and construction was apparently completed without an appropriate contract, according to interim county administrator Gerald Seals.

“For reasons that are unclear, the project was not solicited pursuant to the county’s procurement code,” Seals wrote in a memo to council on Aug. 24. The county’s procurement procedures are meant to assure that the county fairly bids out jobs to contractors, who present competitive cost projections to the county.

Columbia-based engineering company Chao and Associates completed the design for both phases of the park and construction for the first phase. Sticking with Chao for the second phase of construction, rather than bidding out the work, “appears the least complicated and cost efficient path forward” for Pinewood Lake, Seals wrote to council.

If the remaining construction is left to Chao, the project is expected to be completed in December 2017.

A council committee on Tuesday recommended that the full council decide to give managing authority of the park to the county Conservation Commission. If council agrees, the park will transition over the next year from being managed by the Pinewood Lake Foundation to the county-funded Conservation Commission.

The management decision comes five years after the county bought the land in Lower Richland and just a few months after it executed a contract with the foundation to manage the park.

The park has received more than $2.5 million in hospitality tax funding, and another $4.5 million has been set aside for it. Hospitality taxes are charged on prepared foods and drinks, festival foods and some deli-made items in grocery stores.

This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 8:49 PM with the headline "Richland park built without proper contract, county manager admits."