Coleman Engineering Awarded Jesseville Sewer & Water Project
IRONWOOD, MI - Monday, January 28, 2008 - Tonight's City Commission meeting started promptly at 5:30 PM with all five members of the Commission present.
As a result of tonight's meeting the Commission: (1) Authorized advertisement for bids to replace a camera used in the sewer department for televising sanitary sewer lines; (2) authorized advertisement for bids to replace the hand held auto-read programmer used for entering meter reading data into the billing system; (3) authorized Request for Proposals (RFP) for engineering consulting services for the Greenbush Street (from U.S. 2 to Margaret Street) reconstruction project; and (4) authorize the re-bidding of fire hydrant replacement project which involves replacing 20 fire hydrants City-wide.
Finance Director, Julie Frederickson presented the Commission with the Statement of Revenue & Expenditures as well as the Monthly Cash Reports. Commissioner Laabs questioned Ms. Frederickson about check number 114509 (on page 2 of the report) to Northern States Power for N10221 Luxmore Street (the meter pit address) in the amount of $16,000. Julie didn't recognize the transaction, so she told the Commission she would check into it and get back to the them with an explanation. After receiving and placing on file, the Statement of Revenue & Expenditures and the Monthly Cash Reports, the Commission went to work on old business.
The first order of business was to consider a request from the Sports Hall of Fame Committee (SHOFC) for permanent use of the Women's Club Room in the Memorial Building. City Manager Scott Erickson reported to the Commission about a meeting that was held between 3 City Staff members, 2 Commissioners and the SHOFC representatives. According to Erickson, three items were brought up at the meeting by the SHOFC: (1) the right to permanently hang up plaques in the Club Room; (2) the use of the storage room off of the Club Room to hang "overflow" awards; and (3) the right to mount a Sports Hall of Fame sign.
Erickson told the Commission that the toughest part of their request was the "permanence" of their proposal. Erickson repeated what Attorney Cossi stated repeatedly at the January 14th meeting: "Assigning the room permanently is problematic for the City."
SHOFC Member Ron Trethewey told the Commission his main concern was to have a permanent place to hang their plaques. He explained that the trophies and plaques are currently being rearranged with all of the meetings that go on in the room, and he fears they will be damaged. After several minutes of discussion, and a brief address to the Commission by former Mayor Tom Yelich urging action on this issue, the Hall of Fame Committee told the Commission that they were going to have another meeting and will consider moving their Hall of Fame to another location. They said they will let the City Commission know what they ultimately decide to do.
Scott Erickson told the Commission that five RFP's were received for the Jesseville Rural Development project, and after fully reviewing all of the bids, he recommended that Coleman Engineering be awarded the contract. Not only were they the most qualified to do the work, according to Erickson, they also submitted the lowest bid. Their bid was $316,108 as a "not-to-exceed" contract. Theoretically, the City could save money because the "not-to-exceed" clause in the Coleman bid. If Coleman's costs come in at less than the bid price, the City would realize a savings. If Coleman's costs exceed the bid cost, Coleman would take the hit on the low bid. The Commission voted to award engineering services for the Jesseville Area Sanitary Sewer and Water Project to Coleman Engineering, by a unanimous vote.
Bids for the City-wide reappraisal were also discussed. The project was rebid, and four contractors responded to the call for bids. Initially, only one company showed interest and submitted a bid. Erickson explained that the company with the lowest bid was from Wisconsin and had never done such an appraisal in Michigan. He said that he and Dennis Hewitt needed to do some more research on all of the bids before making a recommendation to the Commission. Tom Yelich asked Mr. Erickson what the difference between the highest bid and the lowest bid was. Erickson told Yelich that there was a difference of $66,000 between the two bids.
Scott Erickson reminded the Commission that the City was approved for a federal Small Urban Grant in the amount of $375,000 to do the Alfred Wright Boulevard project. The project funds, through the federal government, will not be available until 2009/2010. In order to move the project forward, the State offered the City a "Local Jobs Today Program" loan where the City borrows funds, using the federal grant as a guarantee, from the State. He told the Commission that the City needs to apply for the loan to get the project rolling. In addition to the low interest rate of 4%, the "Local Jobs Today Program" will kick in $93,000 as an incentive to move the project along. After a brief discussion and a couple of questions from Commissioner Laabs, the Commission unanimously approved a motion to submit the loan application for the project.
City Manager, Scott Erickson gave a very short Manager's Report. He pointed out photos on the easel showing four different homes that were rehabbed in Ironwood through Community Development Office programs. According to Erickson, State funding is available for certain home improvements. The program is administered by Jane Bowman and Dennis Hewitt, through MSHDA. She said there is over $60,000 in available funds for certain homes (based on districts) in the City. There are certain districts that qualify and others that don't. Many of the qualifying homes are near the downtown business district. Erickson said Bowman will be sending information along to the paper regarding available funding to rehabilitate local homes. The Chronicle will post this information as soon as we receive it.
And, finally, the City Manager updated the Commission on the Facade Grant progress. He pointed out that all jobs need TWO bids to qualify for the program. Many of the projects have been delayed because only one bid has been submitted. (related article)
Jim Albert
