York City officials are calculating through a second round of bids in their efforts to stay within a $5 million budget to transform the former City Hall into a modern police station.

On Tuesday, the city revealed the three mechanical or HVAC construction re-bids and five electrical re-bids for the police station project.

The new bids for HVAC are $1.043 million from Myco Mechanical Inc., 1.073 million from Heisey Mechanical Ltd., and $1.115 million from Frey Lutz Corp.

The electrical re-bids were:

Õ Northwind Engineering: $876,520

Õ Wescott Electric: $946,867

Õ Ascom Electric Inc.: $980,967

Õ Leer Electric Inc.: 1, 065,717

Õ IB Abel, Inc.: $1,124,775.

Reviewing re-bids: Contracts would not be automatically rewarded to the lowest bidders, said Carol-Ann Denning, project manager with Buchart-Horn Inc., a local architecture and engineering firm. The city would still have to determine whether the companies appropriately meet the city's specific project needs, she said.

Jim Gross, director of the city's public works department, said the city will review the re-bid numbers to determine whether they meet the project's budget and to decide which contracts to present to the city council for approval.

"This is just the first step in the process," Gross said.

The York City Council agreed to consider accepting bids at its Oct. 2 meeting - on the condition that the bids opened Tuesday allow the city to stay within its $5 million budget.

Since bids were first opened Sept. 5, city officials have been working with prospective contractors to slash more than $400,000 from projected costs. Also, the public works department has been tweaking plans to cut costs.

Gross has said the city will not compromise on its ultimate goal to achieve accreditation for the York City Police Department, which will have full use of the building at 50 W. King St.

The plans: When construction is finished, city police will have access to new prisoner cells, an updated evidence storage system and flood-proof locker rooms. They'll have more space to interview witnesses and suspects. Plans call for transforming the upstairs attic into a gym and training room.

The city is paying for the project with a $5 million state grant. Officials have repeatedly vowed not to spend local taxpayer dollars.

But, Gross has said, there's reason to believe the issue will be resolved with a second bid opening. One company made several errors on its bid sheet, for example.

And, he said, there's some wiggle room in whether or not to hire an outside contractor to move furniture throughout the process. As of right now, the low bid for that work stands at more than $43,000.

The goal is to get construction started before November. It's an 18-month project, Gross said.

-Reach Eyana Adah McMillan at emcmillan@yorkdispatch.com.