City Commissioners approved a $129,688.35 contract for the Great Falls Animal Shelter remodel during their Dec. 3 meeting.

Commissioners awarded the contract to A&R Construction, as recommended by staff.

The animal shelter project is comprised of three smaller projects and is part of a larger package of projects the city is funding through the State-Local Infrastructure Partnership Act that the Montana Legislature approved in 2023

The bill allocated about $20 million from the state general fund to the Montana Department of Commerce to be distributed to cities and towns to help them fund the maintenance or repair of local government facilities on a partnership basis, with local governments supplying a cash match.

Great Falls was allocated $755,461 of SLIPA funds.

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Commissioners approved the package of projects for SLIPA funding in March and ratified contracts with Commerce in September for each project.

SLIPA funding was approved for $85,987.50, with a 25 percent match of $28,662.50 from the shelter’s Help Us Grow campaign, for a project total of $114,650.

City staff worked with LPW Architecture for design and bid documents receiving four bids for the project.

The bid was broken into a base bid and one additional alternative.

The base included replacing the front door, remodeling the kitchenette area, cutting concrete and replacing plumbing lines, and patching and painting the cut areas.

The additional alternative includes repainting the entire floor and walls in the dog kennel area.

Painting the entire dog kennel area was identified in the original grant application, but staff determined that repairing the pipes was more critical as frequent backups were becoming a major operational issue and it didn’t make sense to paint the floors only to have to tear them up in another year, according to staff.

The Montana Department of Commerce agreed to the change, staff said.

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Since the animal shelter has some additional funds available for the repairs, city staff recommended awarding both the base bid and additional alternative.

The city received four bids for the project ranging from $239,270 to $129,688.35, with A&R Construction being the lowest bid for both the base and alternative.

The project includes $11,550 in design fees.

SLIPA is covering $85,987.50 and the HUG fund is covering $55,250.85, according to city staff.

The SLIPA funds have to be obligated by Dec. 31.

Tom Hazen, city grants manager, said in March that only existing infrastructure can be maintained or repaired, the funds can’t be used to expand or build new and can’t be used on private property, such as to support the replacement of lead water lines for homeowners.

Water systems, fire suppression systems, roads, street lights, airports, public buildings and grounds are among the eligible projects.

Local governments must provide a 25 percent match to the total project cost.

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Hazen said the law wasn’t clear in the application process for the funds, but during an informational session with Commerce, it was clarified that cities and towns were to request that city departments submit proposed projects by Dec. 31, 2023.

Hazen said his office sent a memo to city department heads outlining eligible projects, the match requirements and submit their proposals by Dec. 15, 2023.

Seven departments submitted a total of 23 projects for a combined $8.4 million.

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Hazen reviewed the proposals for eligibility, then with the criteria for recommendation, then discussed them with the finance director and city manager.

The criteria for recommendations, Hazen said, was whether the projects were previously recommended for funding, specifically American Rescue Plan Act, or federal COVID relief, funds.

He said city staff had vetted dozens of projects for ARPA funds and identified several as tier one projects, but some of those got eliminated as other priority projects had higher costs, or were among the tier two projects, to be done if there were remaining ARPA funds after the tier one projects were completed.

Those projects were considered priorities for the new state funding program, Hazen said.

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Other criteria included whether other funding was available for the project and if the proposing department was willing to provide the match out of its own budget.