If all goes as planned, the bids for the city’s CR 300N project will be awarded later this month.
During Monday’s Redevelopment Commission meeting, City Planner Jeremy Skinner told the Commission, “We are in the process of bidding out the 300N project.”
The project will include a bike trail along Silveus Crossing and CR 300N to Sheldon Street. The reconstruction will include a side path, lighting, curb and stormwater. It will involve rebuilding 300N from Silveus Crossing to Sheldon Street.
Under the plan, the 300N bridge will be constructed as a separate project since it falls under Kosciusko County’s jurisdiction. The city is coordinating with the county and is paying a portion of that work. “My goal, obviously, is to get the contract awarded yet this year,” he said.
A pre-bid meeting is set for Thursday to meet with the contractors and let the contractors, who plan to bid, pick up the plans. Bids will be open Dec. 14, and Skinner wants to award the bids at the Dec. 16 Board of Public Safety and Works meeting.
To do that, Skinner said he needed the Redevelopment Commission’s approval to award the bids to the lowest bidder.
“So my intent would be, you can either grant me as a board approval to award to the lowest bidder, or – what I was planning on doing – is put the bid tabulation together, send it to you and then have you email saying, ‘Yes I approve awarding to the lowest bidder,’” Skinner explained.
He said that would be put together on the 15th or 16th, and each of the board members would need to email him back saying they approve the lowest bidder. The Board of Works would then approve it at its meeting Dec. 16.
Skinner said he would then have a short amount of time between then and the end of the year to get the contract done. “I’d like to do the same thing: Hand it in, send it to you, and get your approval. And then have Tim and Greg come in and sign the contract forms once we have that in hand,” he said.
Rather than appropriate additional money, Skinner said he wants to use this year’s money for the 300N project, and next year’s money would be used toward Phase II of the Technology Park.
Commission President Tim Meyer said he was hesitant to approve the lowest bid “without a not-to-exceed number and we really don’t know what that number is yet.” Skinner said the project estimates are around $1 million. Meyer had the record reflect that the Commission would vote on approving the lowest bidder via email. Skinner said once he has all the members’ approval for selecting the lowest bidder, he’ll start working on the contracts.
The board also:
• Approved December claims of $13,271 for the Troyer Group for professional engineering services for the CR 300N project; $750 for Beer Appraisal for appraisal of three lots; $37,000 for Wessler Engineering for an airport industrial park study; and $2,445 for H.J. Umbaugh & Associates for professional bond services.
In the claim from Troyer Group, Board President Tim Meyer said it bothered him that miscellaneous services totaled $5,346.66, which is over 40 percent of the $13,271 total. While that was the way it was quoted, Meyer said that was awfully large for miscellaneous.
Skinner said he’d have to go back over the contract and see what that represented, but it “may be just how they write things out.”
• Reviewed changes to the project development contract with HWC Engineering that were made since it was originally presented to the Commission at its November meeting. Under the contract, HWC would look at projects that Skinner doesn’t have time for himself including the redevelopment of the Gatke property and a potential mixed-used development in downtown Warsaw.
One of the changes is a reduction in the contract amount from $15,000 to $12,000. Skinner said he will ask the Redevelopment Commission to approve it at its Jan. 9 meeting.
• Approved the 2017 meeting schedule. Meetings will be at 4 p.m. Jan. 9, Feb. 6, March 6, April 3, May 1, June 5, July 3, Aug. 7, Sept. 11, Oct. 2, Nov. 6 and Dec. 4.
• Heard that Monday was Curt Hermann’s last meeting with the board. Hermann served as a representative of the Warsaw School Corporation, but he did not seek re-election to the board this year so his term ends Dec. 31.
