Council OK’s kitchen costs for senior center, but hopes to improve budget process moving forward

The buildout of the kitchen at the Highland Park Senior Center and new equipment for it have been approved, but some councilmembers raised concerns over the project’s planning.

Councilmembers unanimously approved on Monday, April 14, change orders totaling $926,000 to update the kitchen in the center’s event space, known as The Moraine, and a contract with food service provider TriMark to purchase new equipment for the kitchen.

The Senior Center, 1201 Park Ave. West, has been undergoing renovations since February 2024. As they near completion, the renovation of the existing kitchen is the final phase, according to city documents.

Previously, according to the board packet, the kitchen was full-service and designed for daily meal service and special events; however, it is currently considered out of compliance with city and county guidelines, and most of the equipment is past its useful life.

The buildout will reportedly downsize the space to a catering kitchen, with food prepared off-site and “finished” at the Senior Center.

While all five present councilmembers voted to approve the changes, two raised concerns at the council’s Committee of the Whole session, held prior to the City Council meeting, with most of their comments surrounding the total cost of the change orders.

Councilmember Annette Lidawer said, while she understood that rising costs were expected, she wished that a “placeholder” number for the cost of the kitchen had been shared as the project continued.

“I need to see the whole general picture,” she said, noting that she voted against approving the addition of the east entrance because of the rising costs.

She later said she does not want a future project where portions of it are priced out “piecemeal.”

Councilmember Yumi Ross agreed, saying, “It felt like it came out of nowhere.”

“If we’d fully looked at the scope of this, we had a budget that we were shooting for, it would have informed all the other decisions, and I believe that we could have had a lower number,” Ross said, adding that she would also support using a placeholder number in future projects.

Despite both Lidawer and Ross saying they may vote against approving the change orders, ultimately they voted “yes” on the matter.

“We don’t want any surprise and we want to know a placeholder,” Lidawer said in comments at the regular meeting.

One reason Lidawer and Ross decided to support the change orders was because the event space is projected to take between four and five years to have a return on the investment, and they expressed concerns that a further delay could cause events already planned to be canceled.

Ross added that she was “deeply troubled by how the kitchen buildout was not bookmarked within the context of a not-to-exceed ceiling price on the entire project. We should have considered the scope of the project from the beginning … because maybe we would have made different choices.”

City Manager Ghida Neukirch said unspecified external “issues” were in part to blame for how the project worked out, but agreed that including placeholder numbers, even if they are preliminary, is “good budgeting sense.”

She also acknowledged concerns that electric kitchen equipment is not being purchased.

“(Electric) ends up being about 100% more in cost, and (what’s) also important is the technology isn’t feasible for a commercial kitchen and the work that’s needed to be done there,” Neukirch said.

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