DATE: 11/05/2025
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Public Works Department
2025-423
REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBJECT:
PURCHASE OF PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT FROM GREAT WESTERN
RECREATION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This action is to award a contract to Great Western Recreation for the Park Playground Replacements, Capital Improvement Project No. FC-2024-05, for the purchase of equipment for four playgrounds. This Project will remove the existing playgrounds at Brentwood, Butterfield, Mangular, and River Road Parks and replace them with new playground equipment and rubberized surfacing. This contract is for the purchase of playground equipment only. Construction documents will be prepared, and installation will be bid through a separate public bidding process.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
That the City Council:
a. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to execute the attached Sales Quotation 114916-02-03 with Great Western Recreation (“Great Western”) in the amount of $1,001,362.
b. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to negotiate and execute nonsubstantive extensions, amendments, and change orders up to 10% or $100,136 c. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to issue a Purchase Order to Great Western Recreation in the amount of $1,001,362.
d. Make a determination under Corona Municipal Code Section 3.08.140(C) that competitive bidding has been satisfied based upon the reasons provided in the “Basis for Determination of Competitive Bidding” section of this report.
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
In 2020, the City of Corona conducted parks and facility assessments in anticipation of updating its Parks & Recreation Master Plan. During the evaluation, the playground equipment at four parks – Brentwood, Butterfield, Mangular, and River Road – were identified as being past their useful life and in need of replacement. Consistent with the City’s Strategic Plan goals and Measure X, a capital improvement project titled “Park Playground Replacements,” Project FC-2024-05, was created to replace these playgrounds.
ANALYSIS:
On September 9, 2025, the Parks Commission was presented with two design options for each playground and was asked to provide its preferred selection and feedback. The comments were provided to the playground manufacturer, Great Western Recreation, who provided revised layouts and cost proposals for the equipment; copies of these items are included in Exhibits 2 and 3. City staff applied for a grant from GameTime, the playground manufacturer that Great Western Recreation represents. The grant provides matching funds for qualifying play systems. The City was notified that it had been awarded the grant from GameTime. The table below shows the cost of the equipment both with and without the grant. The City is receiving a total discount of $169,856.62 from the original price, or approximately 14.5%.
Park Playground
Area (SF)
Co-Op Pricing Pricing with
Grant
Savings
Brentwood Park 3,744 $229,191.23 $199,736.67 $29,454.56 Butterfield Park 4,961 $323,397.08 $290,011.24 $33,385.85 Mangular Park 7,919 $377,044.05 $306,224.16 $70,819.88
River Road Park 4,003 $241,585.33 $205,389.01 $36,196.33 Total: 20,627 $1,171,217.70 $1,001,361.08 $169,856.62
Staff is requesting to purchase the playground equipment from Great Western Recreation based on the following:
BASIS FOR DETERMINATION OF COMPETITIVE BIDDING
The Public Works Department is requesting to utilize Great Western Recreation to purchase equipment for this project pursuant to Corona Municipal Code (CMC) Section
3.08.140(C), based upon competitive bidding already being completed. “When the purchasing agent and authorized contracting party, with the approval of the City Manager, determines that:
(1) A competitive bid procedure has been conducted by another public agency, including, but not limited to, another local agency, the state through the California Multiple Award Schedule (CMAS), the federal government through the General Services Administration (GSA), the U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance, or the Western States Contracting Alliance (WSCA); and (2) The price to the city is equal to or better than the price to that public agency.” Great Western Recreation is an exclusive representative of PlayCore Wisconsin, Inc., dba GameTime. The pricing provided by Great Western Recreation is OMNIA Partners pricing, based on Contract Number 2017001134. OMNIA Partners is the largest cooperative purchasing organization for public sector procurement. The National IPA and U.S. Communities cooperative purchasing organizations merged into OMNIA Partners.
OMNIA Partners are certified procurement professionals and cooperative purchasing experts that leverage the buying cooperative for public agencies. Their cooperative contracts are competitively solicited and publicly awarded by a government entity that serves as the lead agency. OMNIA Contract Number 2017001134 was awarded from a competitive solicitation conducted by the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 8, 2017, for playground equipment, outdoor fitness equipment, site accessories, surfacing, and related products under RFP #269-2017-028. The RFP was sent out on January 25, 2017, to 18 companies, and a total of 5 companies submitted proposals by the due date and time of March 16, 2017. As a result of the evaluation process, GameTime play equipment was awarded the contract. Since the initial award, the contract has been renewed with GameTime through June 30, 2026. All of the information regarding the competitive bid and process can be found online at Omnia Partners.
In addition to the competitive bidding process, the City of Corona is receiving an additional $169,856.62 price reduction as a result of receiving a grant from GameTime.
Based on the aforementioned analysis, staff recommends purchasing the playground equipment for the Park Playground Replacements Project from Great Western and executing the sales quotation in the amount of $1,001,3612.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Funding for the recommended actions is available in the Park Playground Replacements, Capital Improvement Project No. FC-2024-05 within the Measure X Fund 120.. Current available funding for this project is $1,708,347 which is sufficient for the recommended actions.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
This action is categorically exempt pursuant to Section 15302 of the Guidelines of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which states that the replacement or reconstruction of existing structures and facilities, where the new structure will be located on the same site as the structure replaced and will have substantially the same purpose and capacity as the structure replaced, is exempt from CEQA. This action involves the purchase of equipment for replacing five existing playgrounds, to be placed in the same locations as the existing playgrounds at four separate parks. Therefore, no environmental analysis is required, and staff has filed a Notice of Exemption with the County of Riverside.
PREPARED BY: TRACY MARTIN, SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
REVIEWED BY: SAVAT KHAMPHOU, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Exhibit 1 – Location Map
2. Exhibit 2 – Agreement
3. Exhibit 3 – Playground Renderings