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PITTSBURG —
Usually when bids come in under the engineer’s estimate, Pittsburg city commissioners are pleased. But at Tuesday’s meeting, one bid was so far under the engineer’s estimate that commissioners had more red flags than praises.
The city commission, in a rare meeting at Lincoln Park, opted to table awarding the low bid for a sanitary sewer line repair project to one bidder after questions arose about its low bid and its recommendations.
The project in question is a sanitary sewer line near the U.S. Highway 69 bypass between Quincy and 4th streets.
“That is often underwater. The joints are in bad shape. The pipe is in good shape, but it is taking in a lot of water. That’s one of the main transporting lines. It’s a good candidate for repair,” said Bruce Remsberg, city engineer.
The bids were opened earlier on Tuesday. The engineer’s estimate for the project, after talking to several sources about the cost of 18” pipe, came in at $581,900. Fortunately for the city, none of the bids were close to that price. The highest bid, for example, came in just a little more than $400,000.
But the lowest bidder, Reynolds Inliner of Kiowa, Colo., came in more than $110,000 less than the second lowest bidder. Reynolds Inliner bid $253,304 on the project.
Remsberg said he checked with a single contact about Reynolds inliner from the Wichita area before the meeting Tuesday.
“Apparently, they do good work. They can be somewhat difficult to work with at times, but not bad enough to spend $110,000 on another group that we’re not familiar with, either,” Remsberg told the commissioners. “It’s a straightforward project with not a lot of areas for interpretation.”
Further, Remsberg described his reports on Reynolds Inliner as “reputable, but slow.”
That did not put commissioners at ease about going with a bidder so far beyond all other bidders.
“My concern is if the reputation from PEC is that they are slow, they do good work, but are hard to work with, would it maybe not be a good idea to go call some other references?” said commissioner Marty Beezley.
The other commissioners eventually decided to table the decision on the sanitary sewer bidding until more references could be called and the reputation of the company could be double-checked.
In other action, the commission:
• heard from John Bailey, director of public utilities, about a smelter waste clean-up being conducted in northwest Pittsburg by Metso Minerals.
Usually when bids come in under the engineer’s estimate, Pittsburg city commissioners are pleased. But at Tuesday’s meeting, one bid was so far under the engineer’s estimate that commissioners had more red flags than praises.
The city commission, in a rare meeting at Lincoln Park, opted to table awarding the low bid for a sanitary sewer line repair project to one bidder after questions arose about its low bid and its recommendations.
The project in question is a sanitary sewer line near the U.S. Highway 69 bypass between Quincy and 4th streets.
“That is often underwater. The joints are in bad shape. The pipe is in good shape, but it is taking in a lot of water. That’s one of the main transporting lines. It’s a good candidate for repair,” said Bruce Remsberg, city engineer.
The bids were opened earlier on Tuesday. The engineer’s estimate for the project, after talking to several sources about the cost of 18” pipe, came in at $581,900. Fortunately for the city, none of the bids were close to that price. The highest bid, for example, came in just a little more than $400,000.
But the lowest bidder, Reynolds Inliner of Kiowa, Colo., came in more than $110,000 less than the second lowest bidder. Reynolds Inliner bid $253,304 on the project.
Remsberg said he checked with a single contact about Reynolds inliner from the Wichita area before the meeting Tuesday.
“Apparently, they do good work. They can be somewhat difficult to work with at times, but not bad enough to spend $110,000 on another group that we’re not familiar with, either,” Remsberg told the commissioners. “It’s a straightforward project with not a lot of areas for interpretation.”
Further, Remsberg described his reports on Reynolds Inliner as “reputable, but slow.”
That did not put commissioners at ease about going with a bidder so far beyond all other bidders.
“My concern is if the reputation from PEC is that they are slow, they do good work, but are hard to work with, would it maybe not be a good idea to go call some other references?” said commissioner Marty Beezley.
The other commissioners eventually decided to table the decision on the sanitary sewer bidding until more references could be called and the reputation of the company could be double-checked.
In other action, the commission:
• heard from John Bailey, director of public utilities, about a smelter waste clean-up being conducted in northwest Pittsburg by Metso Minerals.
• approved moving forward on general obligation bonds and temporary notes to pay for a series of construction projects. In temporary notes, roughly $1.55 million is being used to pay for improvements to Quincy Street and to the 20th and Broadway intersection. Another $855,000 in general obligation bonds are being issued to pay for the Atkinson Road Bridge project and the Homer Street improvements.
“Usually, I tell you that based on market indices, these are good rates,” said Tom Kaleko, Springsted senior vice president. “These are just really, really good rates.”
• approved rezoning 408 E. Monroe from R-2 two-family residential to RP-3 planned medium density residential. Seward Rentals plans to build two four-unit rental properties and one five-unit property on the site.
• heard the 2011 comprehensive annual financial report from Karen Linn of Berberich Trahan and Company, the City of Pittsburg’s auditing firm.
Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 140.
