One bid was received and opened for the Center Lake pier demolition at the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting on Friday.
Milestone Construction’s base bid totaled $397,838.
City engineer Aaron Ott asked the board to let him take the bid under consideration to make sure it’s a complete and responsive bid, as well as to ensure that the city would be able to financially afford to proceed with the demolition.
“If all of that falls into place, we’ll come back at the next meeting and we’ll either recommend an award or recommend not to award and go from there,” he said.
The board approved to allow Ott to take the bid under advisement.
According to the advertisement for bids, the project is locally funded and consists of the removal and disposal of the existing pier on Center Lake near the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion. The pier demolition includes removal of two piers, one encased inside the other. The outer pier consists of a 5-inch-thick reinforced concrete slab bearing on sheet piling, sheet piling stiffeners, sand fill, threaded tensioning rods and steel Z channels. The inner pier is expected to be another reinforced concrete slab bearing on steel encased reinforced concrete piles.
At the Oct. 7 Warsaw Common Council meeting, the council approved a resolution for the Warsaw Public Works Department to transfer $400,000 from one account to another, with $250,000 of that set aside to remove the old pier at Center Lake. The city’s permit with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to demolish the pier expires in April.
The Board of Works on Friday also opened bids for the street department for micro-surfacing and crack sealing.
The only bidder was Pavement Solutions Inc., who bid $5.45 per square yard for micro-surfacing and $1.50 per pound for crack sealing. Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon reviewed the bids during the meeting and then asked the board to award both to Pavement Solutions, which they did.
Next, Dillon asked the board to award the traffic signal modernization at Main and Lake streets to be awarded to Michiana Contracting Inc. for $360,642, which they did.
Dillon reminded the board that sealed bids for the project were opened at their Nov. 1 meeting, with three companies submitting bids - Michiana Contracting, Midwestern Electric and Hawk Enterprises. Michiana Contracting was the lowest bidder, with Midwestern bidding $397,422 and Hawk Enterprises bidding $426,189. The engineer’s estimate for the project was $334,367.40.
The project will be paid for by appropriations out of the street department’s main budget and wheel tax funds.
A little later in the meeting, Dillon told the board that on Nov. 7 the Warsaw Public Works Department received notification that it was awarded a Community Crossings 50/50 Matching Grant from the Indiana Department of Transportation for $493,510.50. The department applied for the grant back in July.
This grant funding will be put toward the CR 300N project between Silveus Crossing and CR 200W.
The board approved accepting the grant.
In other business, the board approved:
• Pay application No. 2 for $1,337.50 from Phend & Brown for reconstruction of Frontage Road, as requested by Dillon. The project is through the Community Crossings Matching Grant from the state that the city received.
• Pay application No. 3, the final pay application, for $15,916.76 from Phend & Brown for reconstruction of Frontage Road and Lake Village Lane, as requested by Dillon. Of the amount, $8,153.38 is for Frontage Road with $7,763.38 for Lake Village Lane.
• Pay application No. 13 for $40,103.48 from The Troyer Group for construction inspection services for the Lincoln Neighborhood Sidewalk Project, as requested by City Planner Justin Taylor.
“You will notice that this pay app exhausts the entire fee for that contract, but this is not our final pay application that we’ll expect for this project,” Taylor stated. “How that works is, we have been in discussions with our consultant and there was a need - because of some of the complexities of the project - for there to be a supplemental contract - or an amendment - to this contract.”
He said when the contract is presented, it’ll have to be “ran through the channels” for approval. “We’ve been in discussions with our consultant to make sure that amount does not exceed $20,000, where we think that contract amendment would be. Once we receive that amendment, we’ll take it to INDOT and make a request for additional funds for this project. We do feel it’s a reasonable request given the issues that we’ve had with the project to this point,” Taylor explained.
INDOT is paying 80% of each pay application for the contract.
Mayor Jeff Grose said the response to the project has been very positive as he lives close to the area.
• A contract between Pro Air Midwest LLC and the Warsaw Police Department and Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory for maintenance on the air tanks for the dive team, as requested by WPD Chief Scott Whitaker. The fire department pays $2,948 for maintenance on their tanks, and the WPD pays $1,430. The WWFT Board approved the contract at thier meeting Nov. 6.
• An agreement between the WPD and ordained minister Layne Sumner for $12,000 ($1,000 per month), as requested by Whitaker. As chaplain, Sumner will continue to provide the WPD and WWFT employees with spiritual guidance and counseling.
• A contract between the Warsaw Stormwater Utility and the Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams for $19,850 for education and stream sensor maintenance, as requested by Utility Superintendent Brian Davison. He said this is the end of the three-year agreement with them.
• Pay app No. 6 for $3,671.75 to G & G Hauling & Excavating for Kelly Park pond improvement work, as requested by Davison. This was the final pay application for the project, which is completed, minus the retainage. The board then also approved the release of the retainage of $25,046.56 to G & G.
• Signing the contract with G & G for shoreline restoration at Kiwanis Park for $69,569.10 and at Pike Lake for $51,451, as requested by Davison. A grant from The Watershed Foundation will reimburse 75% of the cost.
• Signing the contract with G & G for Prairie and Lake streets storm improvements for $387,404.35, as requested by Davison.
• A contract amendment with AECOM Technical Services Inc. for $100,000 for Timber Ridge South and Deer Ridge subdivisions stormwater improvements, as requested by Davison. He said the project is getting ready to go to bid for phase 1, but the amendment to the original design contract with AECOM is to take the project through the rest of phase 1 and getting it bid and starting “to at least a 30% design point on phase 2, which is a pretty major phase as well.” The project is expected to be done in 2025.
• Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club’s request to close Buffalo Street between Market and Main streets, as well as Center Street between Lake and Indiana streets, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 18, 2025, for the City of Lakes Car Show. The event starts at noon and ends at 5 p.m.