As College of Marin contractors prepare to start the $5.4 million Bolinas marine lab overhaul, officials are still trying to raise the remaining $2.5 million needed for the project.

“We have enough to do phase 1,” Isidro Farias, the college’s capital projects director, said at a public forum earlier this month. “We didn’t want to wait a whole year for the fundraising to be completed to start project design, bidding and construction.”

Keith Rosenthal, the college’s fundraiser, said the project — under discussion since the lab was shuttered in 2006 over safety concerns — offers the chance to preserve, study and celebrate the Bolinas Lagoon.

“The lagoon itself is one of the most pristine estuaries in the country,” Rosenthal said during the forum on Dec. 15. “We need to understand it, save it and it nurture it as it is.”

Rosenthal added the new lab will be more than just a marine biology research center. He said art students might want to visit to draw birds, and geology students might use it to study earthquake fault lines, for example.

“Marin is such a special place to all of us,” he said. “We’re so fortunate to have this estuary, and we need not only to protect and preserve it, but also to understand what’s going on.”

Farias said the college has $2.9 million in hand for phase 1 through voter-approved Measure B bond funds. The college will bid out the phase 1 work starting in March, with construction expected to start in the summer. Phase 2 is tentatively set to start in early 2023, he said.

“This project location is a little bit more expensive,” Farias said. “Even though it is a small project, we still need the engineers to do the same amount of work.”

In addition, the complexity of building along the Bolinas Lagoon, with looser-than-ideal soils and limited truck access, makes it more costly, he said.

For example, because of the poor soils, and to avoid disruption in the neighborhood, the college is using a more expensive mat foundation process. That is instead of other options, such as laying down a concrete slab or drilling piers into bedrock.

The mat foundation requires contractors to excavate several feet of ground, build a rebar metal framework inside the excavated area and then fill in the rebar framework with concrete.

“It will be less intrusive to neighbors,” Farias said. “As we reviewed the design, we’ve tried to minimize the effects to the community.”

At least two neighbors said at the meeting they are worried that the demolition of lab buildings over the past year might have damaged their homes. Farias said he would meet with them before any more demolition or construction took place.

Phase 1 will also include the early installation or relocation of gas, water, storm sewer and power utilities, Farias said.

Neighbor Kirsten Walker, a board member of the Bolinas Community Public Utility District and a construction professional, told college officials she supports the project, but wondered why Farias listed “soft costs” at 40%.

“What’s contributing to the 40%?” she said. “That seems really high. We want to support the fundraising, but that’s a number I would pull out.”

In general, soft costs are items such as fees, taxes and insurance that are not directly associated with construction. The exact nature of those costs for the Bolinas project were not available in the college’s presentation at the meeting.

Greg Nelson, a vice president at the college, said the 40% figure was on par with other construction projects in the area. He said 32% in soft costs was “the cheapest I’ve seen during the recession.”

David Wain Coon, the college president, told Walker the college was “doing everything we can to keep costs down. I’ll just leave it at that.”

Other speakers focused on the historical and environmental significance of the project.

Resident Kathy Bustamante said she had good memories of visiting the lab as a child when she was in summer camp. She wanted to know if the new project will have the same saltwater tanks of fish and other lagoon creatures.

“It was so exciting,” she said.

Yolanda Lettieri of project designer Perkins Eastman said the plans call for saltwater tanks, a “wet table” and sinks, in addition to desks and other classroom equipment.

Joe Mueller, marine biology professor at the college and a longtime champion for the restoration project, said he worked with the designers to make sure the size of the saltwater tanks was right so that students could easily reach them.

“It’s really all about access,” Mueller said. “We’ve learned the big huge tanks don’t really work. The smaller tanks are more accessible.”

John Horton recommended the project be dedicated to former biology professors Al Molina and Gordon Chan, who had pioneered the marine lab program since the early 1960s.

“They had a contagious yearning for the appreciation of the world around them,” he said.

Horton also expressed approval of plans to incorporate a U.S. Coast Guard bell in the final design.

“It’s a wonderful gesture to the historical significance,” he said.

The Coast Guard established its station at the site in 1918 and deactivated it in 1947. College of Marin purchased the property in 1955.

The next community update on the project will be in June, Farias said.

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