GBW Architects of Decatur has been selected to design the new Hartselle city pool, which will replace the city’s decaying 35-year-old pool behind Sparkman Civic Center.

The main reason why the council chose the Decatur firm is because of the cost and its ability to meet the Memorial Day 2012 deadline.

“I think it’s clear who is the best option and that’s GBW,” Mayor Dwight Tankersley said in a work session Monday night. “They’re cheaper than anyone else and they are planning to beat our May 28, 2012, deadline by a week.”

Park and recreation director Frank Miller agreed with Tankersley’s recommendation.

GBW Architects is planning to charge the city up to 6.4 percent of the overall cost of the project or $141,700 plus reimbursement for printing costs. The other two firms’ quotes were higher. Fuqua & Partners Architects, P.C., had a quote of $143,000 for designs plus $20,000 for copy reimbursements and Davis Architects submitted a cost of $171,496 plus reimbursable printing costs.

John Godwin of GBW Architects presented the council with an aggressive schedule. He said he would have the design of the structure completed and have documents ready for bid by Nov. 28. That would allow the city to then award construction bids for the project by Dec. 12.

Tankersley also asked Godwin if he would agree to have a $750 per day penalty included in the contract if bid documents weren’t done by his deadline. Godwin said he likely wouldn’t have a problem with that.

Fuqua’s presentation showed that documents wouldn’t be ready before the first week of December with a possible construction award by Dec. 22. Davis Architects said construction documents wouldn’t be ready until Dec. 22 with construction bids being awarded by Jan. 17.

Councilman Don Hall expressed concern that GBW didn’t submit a drawing of a pool with its presentation. The other two firms submitted renderings.

However, Councilman Tom Chappell, who works in Decatur Parks and Recreation, said that wasn’t a concern because he’s done good work for Decatur.

Godwin said, if selected, he would begin immediately to talk with city representatives to figure out what the city wanted. Then he would design the structure and present it to the city.

Once the design is complete, his firm would then work on bid documents and have them ready by Nov. 28. If they achieve the deadline, construction companies would then have five months to do the work.