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All three base bids for road work on Parker Street, Husky Trail and Patterson Road came in way below the original engineer’s estimate.
The bids were opened Friday at the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.
Milestone Contractors LP, South Bend, offered a base bid of $1,100,294.30. Pulver Asphalt Paving Inc., Albion, gave a base bid of $863,704.75, while Phend & Brown, Milford, provided a base bid of $911,575.
Public Works Director Dustin Dillon said the original engineer’s estimate was about $1.8 million.
He also told the board, “If you remember from the last time, these dollars came about through the Community Crossings Matching Grant program. So I’d like to take those bids under advisement and come back at a next meeting after we determine if we have a responsive and responsible bidder. Then we’ll get with INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation), get our reward letter and come back to the Board for an award at a later date. We’ll work on that here in the meantime.”
Dillon said he was thankful they had three bidders on the project.
The bids were approved to be taken under advisement.
After the meeting, Dillon explained the road work includes a 4-inch mill and repaving of the asphalt roadway. ”It’ll be the ingress/egress off of (U.S.) 30 up to in front of Menards there on Parker Street and Husky Trail, basically from the roundabout all the round out to the east to all the way out to Patterson Road/(CR) 75 North out to the four-way stop there at (CR) 175. So that whole area will have a 4-inch structural mill. There will be some full-depth patching and then all new paving with pavement markings as well,” he said.
INDOT released some more dollars for the Community Crossings Matching Grant program in the last legislative session, Dillon explained when asked about a timeline, but INDOT is trying to expand on the amount of dollars they can give out “so they’re making you bid your project so we have an exact number. The engineer’s estimate on this project was $1.8 million and the low bid was $863,000, so they don’t want to have money tied up on their end that’s not going to be utilized, so we’ll have to go back and get approval from them. Once we have the approval letter, we’ll award the project. It’ll be sometime this summer when the construction will happen.”
Bids for asphalt and concrete materials supplies and in-placement markings also were opened Friday for the Warsaw Street Department.
Three companies submitted bids for asphalt materials supply - Brooks Construction, Phend & Brown and Milestone Contractors; Kuert Concrete was the sole bidder for concrete materials; and C.E. Hughes Milling Inc. was the sole bidder for the in-pace pavement markings. The Board of Works accepted all bids as presented.
Street Department Superintendent Joe Vetor said they will start off with the lowest bidders but due to scheduling they may have to “bounce around” and use the other bids.
Baker Tilly Contract
Mayor Jeff Grose presented an engagement letter between the city of Warsaw and Baker Tilly Advisory Group for services connected to Indiana Senate Enrolled Act I “in our continued efforts to take a look at the short- and long-term consequences” of SEA1.
He said Baker Tilly is constantly advising the city on a variety of things.
“The focus here, in the contract, is to give not only my office, (Clerk-Treasurer) Lynn (Christiansen’s) office, our department heads and eventually - if, I can, I really want to do a really good job for the council, for you guys to have this information as we head into this next budget ... and then really over the next couple of years. I just think it’s going to be information that I would like all of us to have. It’s additional and there’s obviously money involved, but all of this could be millions starting back - if you look at the contract - property taxes, the local income tax changes with Senate Enrolled Act 1, and then also our ability as a third-class city to discuss other opportunities: What are we currently doing to bring in tax revenue, what else could be done under state code? And we’ll have all that information,” Grose stated.
He said Baker Tilly is very helpful in helping the city navigate through all the changes created by SEA 1.
Councilwoman Diane Quance said the contract doesn’t have a not-to-exceed amount, there’s just an hourly amount and then estimation amounts for each service that they might be looking at.
Grose said Baker Tilly wasn’t sure either how much work would be required, but they did put parameters in the contract. He said there are stop measures where Baker Tilly will communicate with the city as they go along.
Quance said it’s a very necessary thing and the city needs to stay on top of the changes created by SEA 1 and the city doesn’t have the resources to do that themselves. She made a motion to accept the contract as presented, Grose seconded it and it passed 2-0. Board member George Clemens continues to be absent due to an injury and surgery.
