Bee Cave hires firm for new library build

The Bee Cave City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to hire Hoar Construction for the pre-construction phase of the city’s new public library.

The city hired the company to fulfill the construction manager-at-risk role for the build, initiating the pre-construction phase as the city is now able to begin the design phase of the new library, said Chelsea Maldonaldo, project manager at collaborator Turner & Townsend Heery.

Maldonaldo said Hoar Construction was chosen because of its prior work with the city, specifically the infrastructure development with the Backyard Project.

“(Hoar is) familiar with the way that Bee Cave works and the standards and the operations and procedures,” Maldonaldo said at the meeting. “We're excited to have them on because it seems like they know everybody. … (They’re) ready to go and they're excited to continue to work with the city of Bee Cave.”

The council announced plans to build the new library in October 2022, bringing a much-needed literary addition to the almost 9,000 residents of the city. In 2022, Bee Cave's annual library report states the city’s current facility experienced roughly 62,400 visitors and circulated over 71,408 physical items.

The city has grown by almost 45% in the past 12 years, matching Austin’s population boom. Because of the city’s growing population and the large use of library materials, officials said the expansion of the library system is critical to serving the city’s needs.

The new library will be on Texas 71 at the old "Revival" site near Central Park.

Now that Hoar Construction has been hired, Maldonaldo said the next step is for T&T Heery, Hoar Construction and the city to work on designs for the library and to develop a guaranteed maximum price agreement, which will create the budget for the construction.

Once approved, the budget will first be used to purchase items like electrical switch gears that might take more than a year to deliver, officials said. Meetings are planned within the next few months to work on designs for the library, with full renders expected to be completed in early 2024.

A start and end date for construction has not yet been determined.

City commits funding to Special Olympics

City Manager Clint Garza brought to the council a request by the Special Olympics of Texas to use $185,000 in funding from Bee Cave's hotel occupancy tax to fund the room and board for another event in the city.

Garza said that based on the success of the 2022 Special Olympics, the organization has expressed interest in holding more events in the city, specifically for the next three to five years.

“We've seen it here — a previous video showed the (Special Olympics) powerlifting gym absolutely packed with support from this community, so that community awareness is definitely getting out there,” Garza said at the meeting. “Inclusion over the city is really truly shown from these games of inclusive culture.”

However, some council members, including Andrea Willott, expressed concern over the amount of money Special Olympics has on hand compared to the amount it was requesting, saying it was unusual to request a large sum when Chief Medical Officer Miguel Quezada confirmed the organization already had “into the millions of dollars in reserves.”

Council Member Andy Rebber agreed with Willott and described it as a balance between the amount of revenue the city earns from the event through sales tax against how much it could spend for the program, no matter how much support it garners from the community.

“(We) do see a bit of an increase in traffic. … We are seeing folks come in from out of town obviously with no increase in sales tax that I can see,” Rebber said at the meeting. “If it's sustainable, then it needs to be self-funded.”

Because of the debate about the viability of the event, the council approved the application at $100,00 rather than the requested $185,000.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bee Cave hires firm for new library build