GARDEN GROVE : City Hall Will Fall on Time

The city plans to go ahead next week with its plans to demolish City Hall, despite criticism of its bidding process on the contract for the job.

Economic Development Department manager Mark Asturias said wrecking crews will start Tuesday and work through the end of the week taking down the 1920s building.

Once a high school, the building has been renovated a number of times, leaving it a bizarre mismatch of styles, officials said. Because it is also fraught with seismic, electrical and plumbing problems, city officials determined that moving would be cheaper than making repairs.

The new City Hall at 11222 Acacia Parkway is a modern building wired for upgraded computer technology.

The City Council awarded an Anaheim company a $191,300 contract for the job in October. Since then, another contractor has come forward to question the bidding procedure.

Mark Kirtland of Kirtland Clearing Inc. of Gardena said his firm would have done the job for $85,000 but didn’t know about it because the notice of bid was in a limited-circulation paper.

Though he is in the process of demolishing another city building in Garden Grove, Kirtland said, he was not included on the mailing list to potential bidders for the City Hall job.

City Atty. John Shaw said the city followed all procedures properly and is compelled to honor its agreement with Danrich Co. of Anaheim.