Familiar contractor likely to grab Visalia library remodel

By Lewis Griswold / The Fresno Bee

04/15/07 06:07:12

Seals/Biehle General Contractors, the Visalia company that built the new parking garage in downtown Visalia, is on track to be the builder of another high profile public project.

Seals/Biehle is the apparent low bidder for the Tulare County Main Library remodel and expansion in Visalia. The Tulare County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to award the contract May 1.

The company's low bid of $4.789 million came in under the engineer's estimate of $4.9 million.

"We're all pleased," said County Administrative Officer Brian Haddix.

Assuming board approval, construction would start around June 1 and take about 11 months to complete, said librarian Brian Lewis.

The remodeled library would open in summer 2008.

Plans call for the Spanish Mission-style "old library" built in 1936, and now boarded up, to be remodeled as the children's library and administration offices, and connected to the current library. The state Office of Library Construction has approved the drawings.

The project is being paid for by a $3.4 million grant from the state Library Bond Act of 2000, $560,000 from the Library Foundation, Friends of the Library and Visalia Heritage, $500,000 from the city and the rest from the county.

Lewis Griswold’s column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at lgriswold@fresnobee.com or (559) 622-2416.