Six companies bid on the Center Street and Bronson Street sidewalks improvement projects, but at the end of the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, both were awarded to the lowest bidder - SiteWorx Services LLC.
City engineer Aaron Ott told the board, “There were two opportunities to bid on each sidewalk project, and the bidders may bid just one of the two or both of them.”
The Center Street sidewalk replacement is from Grant to Colfax streets, while the Bronson Street replacement is from Jefferson to Center streets.
Ultimate Edge bid $26,647.50 for the Center Street sidewalk work and $83,994 for the Bronson Street sidewalk work.
S & S Concrete & Excavating bid only for the Center Street sidewalk project at $33,765.
G & G Hauling & Excavating bid $55,023.37 for Center Street sidewalk and $149,559.98 for Bronson Street sidewalk.
Milestone Contractors bid $56,286 for Center and $163,588 for Bronson.
Phend & Brown bid $54,520 for Center and $136,000 for Bronson.
SiteWorx Services LLC bid $25,733 for Center and $58,748 for Bronson.
Ott and Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon reviewed the bids during the meeting and offered a recommendation to the board at the end of the meeting.
Dillon asked the board to award the sealed quote for the sidewalk work for Bronson Street from Jefferson to Center streets for $58,748 to SiteWorx Services LLC, as well as Center Street from Grant to Colfax streets for $25,733 to SiteWorx.
“We reviewed all of them. They are apples to apples and good bids, and we do know SiteWorx as a company and we wouldn’t have invited them to quote, quite frankly, if we didn’t believe they were a good company for the job. They gave us great pricing,” Ott said.
Dillon said SiteWorx was “over $25,000 cheaper than the second bid. They’re a very reputable company. They’ve done work all over the surrounding area, as well as some work for the city of Warsaw. I’m very confident in their abilities.”
The board accepted the recommendation to award SiteWorx the projects.
“We’re getting these done this year, which is why we wanted to go ahead and try to move forward, give them the ability to get started as soon as they can,” Ott stated.
After the meeting, Dillon the sidewalk projects were just a removal and replacement.
“There’s some ADA ramps that will be updated, as well, but it’s just a removal and replacement of sidewalks. Sidewalk updates,” he said.
The city grades its sidewalks and alleys annually and the ones on Center and Bronson are ones getting into poor condition and need to be updated.
“We’re going to start with the (sidewalks) that are in the worst condition, but also we’re prioritize some that are in a little more high-traffic areas than others,” Dillon said. “Bronson Street, that leads all the way to the fairgrounds so the goal is to get that updated.”
Only one bidder offered a quote for the improvement of the alley from Miami Street to Union Street, and it was broken into three separate alternate bids.
G & G Hauling & Excavating offered a base bid of $108,778.07 for Union Street and $172,340.41 for the alley for a subtotal of $281,118.48. The third alternate bid, for Miami Street, was for $112,902.68. Combined, the total base bid and alternate is $394,021.16.
Ott asked the board to take the bid under advisement and table it to the Sept. 1 Board of Works meeting, which they did.
After the meeting, Ott explained the project was for the reconstruction of the alley between Miami and Union streets.
“The alley was built on the wrong alignment and it has some excessive grades that needed to be adjusted, so it’s being reconstructed so that it’ll better tie in and make ADA improvements to the sidewalks as well. The alley was too steep for proper ADA crossings at Union over at Miami,” Ott stated.
The project was already under the engineering phase when Ott was hired as the city engineer so he didn’t know when it was initiated or by who’s request.
The alley is expected to be highly trafficked in the future because of the Gateway Grove development in that area, he said.
“Foot traffic and vehicle traffic are expected to be increasing. We’re just trying to get ahead of that with the improvements,” Ott said.
In other business, the Board of Works approved:
• A contract with Wessler Engineering for $58,800 for engineering and oversight on the 2023 sanitary sewer lining work, as requested by Utility Superintendent Brian Davison.
“One of the big projects in this one is there’s a stormwater outfall pipe kind of at the east end of Center Lake Park in the beach area. It’s in very poor condition and with the boardwalk project ... we want to get that pipe - some of it is going to be replaced, some of it is going to be lined, but we want to get that stabilized before they do their boardwalk project along the beach area,” he said.
• The closure of Market Street from Washington Street west to just east of the post office driveway from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 14 for HopLore Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest. The event itself will be from 12 to 4 p.m.
• The closure of Buffalo Street between Center and Main streets from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sept. 23 for the Kettleheads Brewfest, as requested by Main Street Warsaw. The event is from 5 to 9 p.m.
• The closure of Indiana Street from East Fort Wayne to East Center streets from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 23 for the Lincolnway Cubmobile. The event is from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• An amendment to the agreement between the city and Main Street Warsaw to increase the budgeted amount for the facade improvement matching grant program for 2023 from $25,000 to $40,000.
• A change order for $2,638.25 from CME Corp. for the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion renovation for additional flooring and waxing costs.
• A pay application for $278,491.50 for work completed by CME on the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion from July 1 to July 31. The funds for payment of the claim will come from the distribution of funds related to the Zimmer Biomet Foundation grant.
• A pay application for $3,515.63 from the Troyer Group for the Lincoln Elementary School neighborhood sidewalk project. The payment is for construction services and the Indiana Department of Transportation will pay 80% of the cost.
• The new hire and change in payroll report as presented by Human Resource Director Denny Harlan.
The report includes two new hires for the planning department, full-time administrative assistant Angela Lundy at $20 per hour and part-time administrative assistant Ben Reust at $15 per hour; the hiring of two new part-time line technicians at the Warsaw Municipal Airport, Truth May and Wyatt Stamper, both at $10 per hour; and two firefighters and one patrol officer that are finishing up their probationary periods. The end of the probationary period for full-time firefighters Tristan Pass and Logan Keener will be Aug. 6 and they each will be paid $2,238.90 biweekly. Chris Francis’ probationary period ends Sept. 8 and as a full-time patrol officer he will receive $2,487.22 biweekly.
• The annual software license, software updates and maintenance agreement for $3,770 with A.E. Boyce Co. Inc. for the wastewater utility.
• The annual contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior for $4,200 for the annual joint funding agreement of the Pike Lake stream gage, as requested by Davison.
• A change order totaling $2,240 due to tree removal and extended contract time from G & G Hauling & Excavating for the CR 200S sewer expansion, as requested by Davison.
• An amendment to the contract with Wessler Engineering to increase the amount on the on-call engineering services by $10,000. It’s not to exceed $40,000, according to Davison.