Boise using old contract for new police shooting range

In April 2013, the city of Boise awarded local company McAlvain Design Build a contract to rebuild the police department's shooting range near the end of Mountain Cove road in the Foothills.

That project fizzled several months later after intense pushback from people who live near the range and were sick of hearing guns go off so close to their homes.

Now, the city owns a new home for the police shooting range: 120 acres north of Kuna Mora Road between Cole and Pleasant Valley roads.

Instead of going through another bid process like the one McAlvain won in 2013, Boise is applying the original contract to the new range. A change order increases the cost of this early phase of the project from $242,521 to $348,775, according to paperwork submitted for the City Council's approval.

This covers the cost of things like architectural, engineering, site investigation and permitting management services.

The original shooting range project had an anticipated cost of $1.76 million. State law requires cities in Idaho to ask for bids on projects valued at more than $25,000. City policy puts that threshold at $10,000.

Using the old contract instead of requesting a new round of bids is appropriate because the scope of work hasn't changed, said Colin Millar, who handles purchasing for the city. It's just that the city is building a new shooting range instead of rebuilding an existing one.

Furthermore, Millar said, this saves the city money. MacAlvain has already done some of the work for a new shooting range. Some of that will be applicable at the new location, Millar said. A different company would've had to retrace McAlvain's steps at some cost to the city.

"The whole learning curve has to be recreated with another vendor," Millar said.

The City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the change order. If all goes according to plan, Boise police officers could be training at the new range as early as this fall.

This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Boise using old contract for new police shooting range."