County moves to work further with consulting firm

The construction management firm hired by Cook County to oversee the new community center project has been brought on board to oversee other 1% sales tax building projects as well. For now ORB Management will serve as consultants and advisors to those pending projects. Commissioner Sue Hakes serves as chair of the community center steering committee.

Hakes: “Tom Wacholz, president of ORB and his business partner Kim Barse brought their proposal to the county board for a master consulting agreement between ORB and Cook County. Basically what this is a proposal for them to help the county – in essence be an extension of us to represent the county in 1% projects with respect to management and administration, all the way to potentially being a construction manager as they are on the community center.”

Hakes said there is an open agreement between the county and ORB that allows for flexibility when dealing with the various 1% projects.

Hakes: “It is, if you will, a smorgasbord. We can select them for certain projects, we don’t have to select them for certain projects, and we can hire them to do anything. They’ve given us a suite of services they offer and we can kind of pick and choose. Their fee will be based on that. It’s a sliding fee up to but not exceeding 2-1/2 percent. Really what this is, is a cost savings to the county. Instead of a more traditional role as in the case of the community center, as with a general contractor, we’ve got a construction manager taking on that role, and the over-all expense to the county is less and we think they can be our eyes and ears on the project and help us save money that way and save money on the community center and other projects.”

The board asked a lot of questions, discussed the contract thoroughly and in the end voted on the arrangement.

Hakes: “And that did pass. What didn’t pass yet, but we authorized (County Attorney) Tim Scannell and (Auditor-Treasurer) Braidy Powers to negotiate for review and approval is to hire ORB to do some of the management and administration on the library project.”

Hakes said the community center planning continues with an all day meeting and a number of shorter sessions to end up with public input discussions.