Snohomish to bolster Carnegie Building for quakes

SNOHOMISH — The city awarded a contract to retrofit the Carnegie Building to strengthen it against earthquakes.

Earlier this week, the Snohomish City Council approved 6-0 to award the bid to Lynden-based Faber Construction Corp., which had the lowest bid of $596,900.

Councilman Greg Guedel abstained from voting because he is a member of the Snohomish Carnegie Foundation.

The city had budgeted $878,244 for the work, which included other expenses such as advertising bids and consulting work. Faber’s bid was higher than the city had budgeted for construction, causing a $169,000 budget shortfall, project manager Ann Stanton said.

To solve the issue, the council also approved increasing the total budget to almost $1.05 million. The majority of it is being paid by state and federal grants.

No city tax dollars are paying for this project. The local share is being paid by donations and by renting the Carnegie for events and special uses, Stanton said.

The Carnegie Foundation has pledged to pay the rest of the local share, she said.

Construction work is scheduled to start in late August and end in April.

Alejandro Dominguez: 425-339-3422; adominguez@heraldnet.com.