Federal Building Bid Opening Due

Federal Building
Bid Opening Due

BY ROY REYNOLDS

News Staff Reporter

Bids for construction of a federal
building which will contain government
offices and the city's main Post Office in
downtown Ann will be opened
Thursday sat the Gdieral Services Ad-
ministration's Chicago office.

Actual signing of a contract and the
beginning of construction would be ex-
pected to take place in about 30 days, as-
suming bids received Thursday would
permit the building to be complet
within the total project budget of $'<
million.

Confirmation that this schedule is ex-
pected to be maintained, rather than de-
layed as has happened several times
since the federal building project was
announced early in 1973, was pn ' I; '
this morning by Benjamin Copes

director of business affairs at GSA's Chi-
cago officxe.

Copenhaver said GSA now anticipates
"no holdup" on the project due to unset-
tled questions as to the price the govern-
ment is to pay for some of the properties
to be demolished to make way for the
new building. It will be located in the
northern portion of the block bound by
E. Liberty, S. Fifth Avenue. S. Fourth
Avenue, and E. William.

An order providing federal possession
at 6 p.m. June 14 of a house at 326 S.
Fifth Ave., the last required property

whiph had n«->t r>rovinnlt;v hoop obtained

t Judge
niiilp Pralt, as repurled Monday.

Samuel J. Behringer, U.S. attorney as-
signed to deal with that property, said
Monday a gap of $16,000 stands between
the price offered by the government and
the amount sought by owner Pauline
Rothmeyer, an attorney who maintains
her office in the house and rents rooms
t 326 S. Fifth Ave. He said he will at-
tempt to resolve the price question
through negotiations. Behringer said
Rothmeyer purchased the property "with
knowledge it was to become federal
property."

Behringer said two tenants in the
house who corn government has
not met its obligitnun iu find them "com-
parable" dwellings "haven't pursued ad-
ministrative remedies."

Gene A. Warren, executive director of
Ann Arbor's Housing Commission, which

iU^: : ^ 197'
has responsibility for administering fed-
eral 'ion aid, said Monday those
two have not contacted the com-
mission. He added that the commission
staff tried unsuccessfully to contact
those tenants by phone and letters hand-
delivered to 326 S. Fifth Ave. Warren al-
so said GSA relocation specialists have
"offered them everything they possibly
could."

Behringer said that at one point, a ten-
ant accepted federal relocation funds but

"named at 326 S. Fifth Ave., but added

' does not know if that tenant remains
there.

Efforts to contact Rothmeyer for com-
ment on Monday and this morning were
unsuccessful.