Pyramid gets contract for shed work
By RANDY PIERCE
[email protected]
Pyramid Electrical Contractors Inc. of Fairview Heights has been awarded a bid by the St. Clair County Public Building Commission to perform work connected with the renovation of the livestock sheds at Belle-Clair Fairgrounds in Belleville.
One of Fairview Heights’ longest continually running businesses, having started by Ken and Carol Keeney in 1982, Pyramid, located at 300 Monticello Place in the city’s east end, submitted the low bid of $231,950 for performing the necessary upgrades to the electrical system for the sheds located behind the Exposition Building on the fairgrounds property at 200 South Belt East in Belleville which is owned by the county.
Pyramid has done work on numerous high visibility and important area projects such as MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, St. Clair Square, the MetroLink light rail transportation system, Memorial Hospital in Belleville, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Scott Air Force Base, McKendree University, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge and Touchette Regional Hospital.
Also for the fairgrounds project, the county PBC, at its regular monthly meeting held on Thursday, July 18, additionally awarded a bid totaling $428,400 to Middendorf and Reuss Construction Inc. of Freeburg for necessary carpentry, including replacing rotted posts, and sheet metal work plus another $29,000 to paint all of the columns of the shed structure at the same site.
St. Clair County Director of Buildings Jim Brede told the PBC that Pyramid’s bid was around $100,000 less than the next lower one because of the price of the electrical fans it had offered which were not as “high end” as those included in other proposals which were beyond the needs of this specific project.
Holland Construction Services Inc. of Swansea was awarded a bid by the PBC related to both the renovation of the aforementioned sheds and the exposition building seams replacement. This bid, in an amount of $467,878, is for the Holland firm to act as construction managers for the fairgrounds upgrade at both of those sites.
All of these improvements are by and large being financed by $14 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, along with changes to the main entry road into the Fairgrounds property and replacing the heating, air conditioning, plumbing and ventilation equipment plus the electrical system.
The Fairgrounds property has for many decades served as the location for numerous public events such as a monthly flea market, a site for construction trades professionals to share career information with local area high school students, shows featuring antiques, crafts, hobby items, automobilia, woodcarver creations, brewery-related collectibles, guns and weaponry and, more recently, hosting Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling matches.
Among the other many items being looked at are improvements to vehicular circulation including delivery access, pedestrian movement, parking areas with landscape islands, a new “gate house” near the entryway. restrooms which would be accessible from outside the Exposition Building and walkways.
St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern has been one of the strongest proponents of these site, building and property renovations, citing his desire for the return of the county fair and the use of the facility as a mass shelter if needed in the case of a disaster displacing people from their homes.
A majority of the St. Clair County Board approved the purchase of the Fairgrounds property in December 2022 after having utilized the site during the prior couple of years for mass vaccinations related to the coronavirus pandemic.
The PBC, which Brede reports to about various projects such as this, the county jail and the administration building in Belleville, acts as an agent for the property owners, overseeing its operations just as it does for MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, regarding much of what occurs at these locations including structural and maintenance matters.
