May 1, 2008

Bids for Melching project come in well below estimate

“Fantastic!”

That was the reaction of Bonar & Associates engineer Brian Hood after opening bids for the proposed Melching Addition stormwater project Wednesday night. Stormwater Management Board members Tim Miller, Rose Barrick and Dennis Ramey couldn’t have agreed more.

Projected to cost $420,000 by Hood and fellow engineer Mark Jesse, only one of the 10 bids opened Wednesday night exceeded that amount. All the rest were well below it.

The bids in ascending order were:

—All Star Construction of Roanoke, $319,316.

—Land Construction of LaOtto, $323,225.

—Earth Construction, Fort Wayne, $325,778.70.

—Geiger Excavating, Fort Wayne, $338,102.

— Crosby Excavating, Fort Wayne, $339,747.25.

— Everett Farm Drainage & Excavating, Decatur, $365,325.30.

—Bercot-Gibson Construction Inc., Fort Wayne, $372,453

—Scheidleman Excavating, Garrett, $373,961.78.

—Kurtz Excavating, Fort Wayne, $399,936.35

—Atlas Excavating, West Lafayette, $498,854.

Hood read aloud each bid to a roomful of anxious contractors during Wednesday’s meeting. He advised that the bid documents in each of the packets appeared to be in order, but the bids would be taken under advisement and checked to make sure each one meets the specifications for the project.

The board gave Hood permission to make a recommendation to the Ossian Town Council at the council’s next meeting May 12 on which contractor to choose for the project.

“It would appear that from the bid reading All Star is the low bidder,” said Hood, adding, “We’ll run a tabulation on the bids, check them and make a recommendation to the council.”

Barrick said she was so relieved to see the bids come in so far below what was estimated. Miller and Ramey echoed her sentiments. To fund the construction project, the board and the town council have already agreed to borrow up to $420,000 from the Ossian State Bank on an up to 10-year loan at a rate of 4.6 percent. The Ossian council approved of seeking the loan at the Feb. 25 council meeting.

“I think we can thank the economy for the bids being low,” said Dick Witte, who represents the town council on the storm water board. He noted that the poor economy is making construction companies hungry for projects.

Witte added his hopes that the bid by All Star was OK. Hood noted he had dealt with All Star on a number of occasions and has found them to be a reputable contractor that does prompt and good work.

In a related matter, Town Manager Luann Martin informed the board that the council is considering two companies to act as a construction manager on the project—town engineer Fleis & Vandenbrink and Construction Support Services Inc. Martin said that she was leaning toward recommending Construction Support Services Inc. because their hourly rate was lower, they are a reputable company and they have no corporate ties to any of the engineering companies.

With all of the money that may be saved on the Melching Addition project, the board got some bad news from Martin Wednesday night.

A 500 to 700-foot stretch of stormwater line along the edge of LaFever St. appears to be deteriorating.

In fact, according to Martin, there may be some stretches of pipe where there is little more than a horizontal hole in the ground with no tile left to support it.

She observed in at least one location, a “divot” has started to form, indicating that the ground is collapsing into where the tile had been. The problem with the tile was discovered when the town employees tried to water jet it out and discovered chunks of tile were coming back.

The whipping action of the water jet is hard on old clay tile, noted Witte and Martin.

Bonar gave a preliminary estimate of $100,000 to $120,000 to completely replace the line between the Eight Mile Creek and Church St. That seems to be the section where the problems lie, noted Martin.

That would chew up all of the savings on the Melching Addition project.

But Martin is hoping to save money by doing two things. First she would like to avoid engineering the project since it’s simply replacing a line that already exists. Second, she would like to have the project declared an emergency so that the expense of bidding it could be avoided. The project may need to be engineered if it goes to a bidding process because someone would have to draw up specifications.

Witte pointed out that bidding the project may not be that bad of an idea. After all, look at how much was saved by bidding the Melching project, he observed. He added that instead of a $100,000 project, the LaFever St. project may be a $60,000 project.

But he agreed with Martin as far as not understanding why a replacement project would need to be engineered.

Martin told the board she wants to investigate the project further to determine what needs to be done before making a final recommendation to the board.

In other business, the board members:

—Learned from Barrick that a swingset and the Ossian Health & Rehabilitation sign are all that need to be removed from the Melching Project easement. The sign will be dismantled and then replaced when the project is complete.

—Learned from Martin that the utility crews have picked up the necessary materials to make repairs to a tile between Depot St. and the Eight Mile Creek. Repairs on two blowouts will be undertaken soon.

—Learned that Martin has not had the opportunity to explore more quotes on the proposed purchase of a sewer camera. The agenda item was postponed until a future meeting.

The next regular meeting of the board is set for Monday, May 28, at 6 p.m.

glenw@news-banner.com

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