GROVES — Bids to construct an additional pavilion, with all the bells and whistles and a concrete path in Groves’ Lion’s Park, were rejected and it’s back to the drawing board.

Bids were received for construction of a 25-foot X 50-foot galvanized structure with electrical hook-ups and a 25-foot wide pathway came in at about $87,000, Groves City Manager D. Sosa told council during Monday’s meeting. Almost $46,000 of the cost is for the pathway.

The project was bid as a whole and not as construction of the pavilion with the electrical and pathway as alternates which caused problems.

“In this case the concrete was part of the original bid and a negotiated price with the low bidder would need to be reached. This amount was $53,824, which was still too high and over the 25 percent limit of negotiating with the low bidder,” Sosa said.

Councilmembers Jim Rasa, Sydney Badon and Kyle Hollier along with the mayor, Brad Bailey, discussed whether the pavilion was needed and if it would be used for more than three or four days out of the year during the annual Groves Pecan Festival.

Also in on the talk was Mark Kelly with Action Engineering. Since the project is construction of a facility to be used by the public the city must have it engineered for windstorm and load ratings. Action is the engineering company the city is using for Community Development Block Grants and has been hired for this project and they have also done many jobs for the city related to water, sewer and streets projects in the past.

Rasa questioned spending the money for the pathway that will be at the park 365 days a year but only used for several during the festival, saying it would welcome kids to use or abuse it.

Hollier, who brought the topic up months ago for discussion, said he and Ronnie Boneau, the executive director of the Groves Chamber of Commerce, had spoken about the project previously.

“Mayor, I talked to Ronnie and he said they (chamber) get phone calls all the time for people wanting to be under the pavilion. It would be used all the time,” Hollier said.

Hollier and Boneau had originally measured the distance between the booths during the festival and guessed a 10-foot wide concrete pathway would be sufficient. That number bumped to 15 during previous council discussion in April.

“In the original discussion I said 10-foot and the mayor said 15 but when you go to 25-fo0t wide, that’s pretty wide,” Hollier said.

The proposed pavilion would be located on the Lincoln Avenue side of the park.

Badon, who, along with the mayor, lives near the park, said he sees people on the Lincoln Avenue side all the time and that he did not have a problem placing the pavilion on that side.

Council opted to reject the bids and go out again for bids on the construction project with the electricity hook-ups and concrete pathway as alternates.

Mary Meaux: 409-721-2429

Twitter: @MaryMeauxPANews