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The City Council increased a loan Tuesday for the downtown library renovation project, which is four months behind schedule and an estimated $2 million over budget. 

At the request of the library board, the council voted unanimously to increase the original loan, approved in 1999, from $1.1 million to $1.3 million.  

According to Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz, the library has not yet used any of the city’s loan funds.  

He said the loan was originally approved as a backup in case the renovation and expansion project went beyond the original estimate of $30 million. 

The main source of funds for the Central Library, at 2090 Kittredge St., came from $49 million in Measure S bond money, approved by voters in 1996. Measure S funds also paid for the renovation of the recently completed Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center building and other improvements downtown. 

Despite delays and overruns, Public Works Director Rene Cardinaux said the project is going well and delays are, in part, expected because of unknown structural conditions that are usually discovered during a large renovation.  

But questions about project contractor Novato-based Arntz Builders’ ability to meet deadlines have spurred the council to ask the city attorney to review the competitive bidding clause in the City Charter, which compels the city to accept the lowest responsible bid for capital projects. 

Arntz Builders is also contracted for the $29 million project currently underway on Milvia Street at Berkeley High School. 

“We have a responsibility to spend the taxpayers’ money as frugally as possible and going with the lowest bidder does not always make the best economic sense,” said Councilmember Dona Spring, who added that she is worried that similar delays might occur at the high school. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said that when the city’s Capital Projects Division investigated Arntz Builders prior to entering into the contracts, they were unable to find any evidence of failure to complete contractual responsibilities on the company’s other projects. 

Cardinaux defended the contractor to the council saying there are too many unforeseen problems that arise in large renovation projects to accurately predict completion dates and cost overruns. 

According to library project manager, Elena Engle, the project, which began in April, 1999, is now expected to be completed by Nov. 3, about four months after the agreed-upon completion date. 

Engle said the Central Library, once completed, will have twice as much space as the original library. “The old library was about 50,000 square feet,” she said, “and the renovated library will have a total 100,000 square feet of additional space.” 

It will have a new community meeting room, a new Berkeley History Room, and three times more space for the children’s section and the art and music sections. The building will also be seismically upgraded. “The list goes on and on,” she said. 

Engle said the cost overruns were not unusually high for a renovation project and that the industry standard for calculating budget overruns is about 15 percent of the estimated cost, which in this case would be $4.5 million. 

“At an estimated overrun of $2 million, we’re in pretty good shape,” she said. 

But she said that some of the delays could possibly be the result of Arntz poor staffing of site managers. 

Cardinaux said the renovation experienced several unavoidable delays such as the discovery of inadequate foundations in adjacent buildings. “They had to put in extra underpinnings on the neighboring buildings and by the time that project was completed we were into winter, which caused additional, weather-related delays,” he said. “Then there were a series of smaller problems such as some asbestos removal and they had to take out some oil-contaminated soil where an old elevator was. These kinds of small things happen and they add up to weeks.” 

In addition there has been a painter and plasterers strike that has yet to be resolved. Cardinaux said that the labor issue may cause another delay of about a week.  

But Board of Library Trustees President Kevin James said the project completion date was moved back to June 25 to accommodate unexpected delays related to structural and weather conditions. 

“That date has passed and we think there have been times when management of the project has been understaffed and lax,” he said.  

Arntz Building Superintendent Brian Proteau said delays were unavoidable. “There’s always going to be problems on a remodel project like this and especially when the building is 75 years old,” he said, “For example it was a rough winter and we were trying to pour the new foundation and you just can’t do that in the mud.” 

On a lighter note, Engle told the council that fundraising for some of the interior amenities for the newly renovated building such as the library’s refurbished original furniture and computer equipment was going well. “The Library Foundation has been wildly successful in raising money,” she said, “thanks to the citizens of Berkeley.”