Darren Coldwell began serving as Page City Manager on Nov. 12, 2019, the same month COVID-19 first appeared in China. His first summer in town, Page police reported four alcohol-related deaths, including a 50-year-old man found at John C. Page Park. In addition to addressing the pandemic chaos, Coldwell took steps to address a problem all too familiar to Page residents: public intoxication.

“The decision to attempt to help, literally came from a concern for the safety of those we are trying to help,” Coldwell told the Chronicle in an interview on Aug. 24, 2020.  

“It was our fear that with the continued heat, we could potentially see an uptick in hospitalizations and even deaths. Those have both come to fruition this summer. … Currently, 40% of all emergency services calls involve intoxicated individuals, and we have seen three deaths in three weeks from alcohol poisoning and exposure. It was the decision of city staff to attempt to make a difference in the problem. Be it successful or not, we were going to at least try.” 

Coldwell, working with the mayor, police department and city staff, reestablished the Substance Abuse Committee.

“With this core group, we then decided to extend invitations to Banner Health, Coconino County, Canyon Lands, Encompass, Page Unified School District, Catholic Charities and the Navajo Nation,” said Coldwell.

All accepted the invitation and were present in person or over Zoom at the first roundtable meeting Aug. 6, 2020. The reestablished Substance Abuse Task Force held its first meeting on Oct. 7, 2020. 

Shortly after, the city, anticipating a sizable grant, began working on an agreement with Encompass Healthcare to manage a new treatment facility. On Oct. 27, 2020, City Council approved a contract with Campbell Architecture for engineering and architectural services.

The pandemic affected every aspect of new construction projects. Construction cost estimates in 2020 were obsolete in 2021 and more so in 2022. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors, building material costs have increased by 37.7% since 2020. Because of Page’s location, contractors must figure increased labor, transportation and worker housing costs into their bids – if they decide to bid at all. It’s not unusual to have a sole bidder for Page projects.

“Sometimes there’s not enough profit in a project like this that someone wants to come from St. George or Phoenix to work in Page,” said Page Public Works Director Kyle Christiansen. 

 Project architects may list their projects with services like The Dodge Report or BidDocs to reach potential contractors. Construction estimators also monitor newspaper legal notices for new projects. 

“Depending on the complexity of the project, I usually have a bid due date about two to three weeks beyond that,” said Christiansen. “That way it gives builders time to give us some questions, and we can do addendums if we have to on the bid. So it’s usually, I think, from start to finish, it’s five, six weeks back, and then we review them and then get them to council. So we’re looking at maybe eight weeks total, roughly, depending on holidays and council meetings and stuff like that.”

The proposed Encompass Substance Abuse Residential Facility is a classic example of how Page construction projects can quickly take a turn for the worse. On Dec. 15, 2021, the City of Page accepted a $1,986,279 grant from Arizona Department of Housing (ADOH) for the project (2020 Cares Act Community Development Block Grant). One of the conditions of the ADOH grant is that the “recipient agrees that funds will be expended within 24 months, with not less than 80% of funds expended by Sept. 30, 2022, and the remaining 20% of funds expended by Sept. 30, 2023.”

After the city paid for architectural services, and two rounds of bidding yielded no contract, it appeared the City of Page would have to reimburse the grant funds to the state, including funds paid to Campbell Architecture.

Page City Council’s agenda on Aug. 9, 2023, included an executive session to discuss the problem with attorneys. Before going into executive session, longtime Encompass CEO Joe Wright addressed council. Although retired from Encompass, Wright currently works parttime with Community Bridges, Inc. (CBI), Encompass’s parent company. Part of his duties include continuing the work he began as CEO of Encompass, getting the new treatment facility built and operating.

“The first time we put the bid out we had roughly $2 million, and I think our low bid came in at $2.6 or $2.7 million,” said Wright. 

“We went ahead and put it out for rebid and we only had one entity – one organization submitted a bid for that, and that bid came in at $3.4 million, so we went up and not down. We’ve been going out and working quite vigorously at trying to find more money. We have been pretty successful at that through joint efforts. We were able to secure a half-a-million-dollar ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act of 2021) award from the county, and then through one of my old funding sources we were able to receive a grant of $200,000 and through one of my other funding sources we were able to secure another $100,000, so now we’re sitting right now at about $2.7 million or so, and we’re into a little over $100,000 right now with architectural fees.”

Wright secured a time extension with ADOH and assured council that CBI would cover funds the city paid for architectural services regardless of outcome. Council, in executive session, agreed to continue with the project.

“It looks like we have now enough money in our coffers to make this happen,” Wright told the Chronicle last week. “However, the Department of Housing, since we never accepted a bid, is requesting that we put this project out to rebid. And so that’s where we’re sitting at right now. In fact, what we have done is we have also reduced the square footage of that building and reduced the amount of detox beds in that facility to bring it down closer to what we think we have available. And so with that reduction in square footage and with us not accepting a bid beforehand, we have to put it out to rebid.”

Wright said the residential facility will have 16 beds: 10 for males and six for females.

Coldwell said Building Official Brett Slavens has approved the revised architectural plans. 

“I have signed off on the approval to go ahead and start the bidding,” Coldwell said. 

“I feel really good with this. I think in the first go-around, we also had a short-term drop-off facility as well as a long-term treatment plan. And our goal is always to have long-term treatment. So now this will just be a long-term treatment facility. So we lessened the size because of that. And with that, of course, there’s less air conditioning demands, there’s less concrete, less everything. So I think that we’re going to fall within the grant now. I think both the architect and the contractors that we worked with are pretty comfortable that our financial situation would cover this facility.” 

The City of Page secured the ADOH grant to build the facility on city property. Encompass agreed to manage the facility and take full possession of the building and property after running the operation successfully for five years. 

“Basically, what it is, for five years they’ll run the facility, and then after five years it will be theirs,” said Coldwell. “If for any reason they can’t properly run the facility or they back out of it, the city has the opportunity to put it out for another vendor to take over that facility.”