More ballfields or Meadows help?

Friday, April 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The City Council is slated to decide at Monday's meeting whether to use $340,000 in federal money that had been earmarked for a community center in crime-ridden Meadows Village to instead build ballfields elsewhere.

Also, five area contractors have submitted bids within $100,000 of each other for a chance to build the baseball/softball field and a soccer field outside of Rafael Rivera Community Center at 2900 Stewart Ave.

If the council approves the deal, Meadows Village, once called the Naked City and long one of the city's poorest areas, will still get a facility -- though not a traditional community center.

In a memo from Sharon Segerblom, director of the city's Neighborhood Services Department, to the council, she spells out the interdepartmental trade-off that will make both projects possible:

"The Department of Parks and Leisure (Activities) has budgeted for modulars, which will be placed behind the Stupak Community Center to house English as a Second Language classes.

"In exchange for the parks department covering the cost of modulars in Meadows Village, the Neighborhood Services Department will cover the complete costs of the ballfields at Rafael Rivera."

Part of that cost will include "reprogramming" $340,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds -- federal money generally used to help the poor or to construct and repair municipal facilities -- that were to be used to build the Meadows Village Community Center for the ballfields at Rafael Rivera, she said.

Other funds for the project will come from the Parks Leisure Capital Project Fund.

Local softball and baseball enthusiasts for years have implored the city and Clark County to build more fields because there are not enough to serve the thousands of Southern Nevadans who play the games year-round in leagues throughout the valley.

Residents of Meadows Village, an area long plagued by high crime rates and decaying neighborhoods, have for many years accused the city of overlooking many of their needs in favor of projects for wealthier sections of the community.

The construction of the Rafael Rivera ballfields will include two tennis courts, lighting for the courts and additional electric lighting for the area.

In a second agenda item on the issue, the city will consider five close bids to determine what officials call the "lowest responsive and responsible bidder."

For government projects, the contract does not always go to the lowest bidder, but to the bidder the board believes will do the project for the price submitted and of a quality expected by officials. Thus, track records often play as vital a role as the actual bid in determining who gets the job.

Valley Crest Landscape Inc., of Las Vegas, submitted a base bid for the fields at $1,515,510 and an overall bid for the fields, courts and lighting of $1,739,710, narrowly edging out Richardson Construction of North Las Vegas, with $1,535,790 and $1,743,288.

Meeks Contracting of Las Vegas finished third in the sealed bid process with $1,579,073 and $1,769,036, while Las Vegas Paving Corp. submitted a fourth place bid of $1,571,000 for the ballfields and $1,796,244 for the fields, courts and lighting.

Finishing last was J.R. Jacks Construction Corp., of Las Vegas, with $1,619,800 and $1,834, 800 -- just $95,090 out of first place.

General Services Department Director Ralph Shackelford noted in a memo to the council that the project includes demolition of an existing curb, grading, utility work, paving, fencing, metal work, construction of bleachers and the erection of six field lights and a scoreboard.