TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager to extend until
December 16, 2010, Contract No. 30963 with Mike Bubalo Construction Co., Inc., for the reconstruction of the stream at El Dorado Nature Center. (District 4)
DISCUSSION
Created in 1969, the EI Dorado Nature Center (Nature Center) is a 102-acre public environmental, educational, and recreation center. The Nature Center contains two lakes connected by a stream, which is approximately a half-mile long. During the nearly 40 years that the Nature Center has been in existence, vegetation has grown to shade and clog the stream. Storms have eroded the banks, depositing silt along the stream bottom. Leaves and branches that have fallen into the water have decayed and accumulated on the stream bottom, causing the stream to become shallower. The resulting wider and shallower stream does not provide healthy aquatic or riparian habitat and is eroding into the walking trail.
Restoration plans were developed for this design-build project, and on October 21, 2008, Mike Bubalo Construction Co., Inc., (Bubalo) was awarded a one-year construction contract to implement the stream restoration.
The Nature Center stream restoration is being funded by grants under the Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air, and Coastal Protection Bond Acts of 2000 and 2002, and mitigation paid by McDonnell Douglas for violations under the Clean Water Act. Permits for the project have been secured from the California Department of Fish and Game, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
On December 29, 2008, the California Department of Parks and Recreation notified the City that, due to the State budget crisis, all activities funded by California Propositions 12 and 40 were to be suspended immediately. Because grants under these propositions comprise a substantial portion of funding for this project, all project activity was immediately stopped at that time. Fortunatel...
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