MENTONE - Contractors have until 3 p.m. May 13 to get their bids in for the Mentone wastewater treatment plant project.
During the Mentone Town Council meeting Monday night, Mike Strang, of Bonar Group, said the bids will be opened and recorded at that time. The town council will receive the bids and review them at 6:30 p.m. May 17. The council will announce the lowest bidder, but the Office of Community and Rural Affairs must review the bids before the council can actually award the bid. Strang said the bid will be awarded in June.
OCRA is providing a $600,000 grant for the project.
Strang said the plans and specifications for the project are complete. Thursday, an advertisement was published notifying bidders they had the opportunity to get plans submitted by the 13th. He suggested one board member be present on the 13th.
If for some reason the second advertisement doesn't appear as needed, or bidders need more time, Strang said they have an extra week to play with. However, he said they don't anticipate that happening.
Five or six contractors have expressed interest in the project, Strang said, but only two have picked up plans so far. If six more bidders are interested in the project, that would be ideal for the town.
"With the economy, there's not that many projects out there so (contractors) are bidding on everything," Strang said.
"Sounds fine with me," said Jack Simpson, town council member.
Strang said the project seems to be coming along very well.
The town also is seeking a $1 million grant to address the town's stormwater flooding issues.
John Umbaugh, of Umbaugh & Associates, provided some recommendations on how the town could dovetail the stormwater project with the wastewater sewer project if the town gets the $1 million grant.
He suggested the town did not need to create a storm water utility board if they get the grant.
In the next 45 days, he said, the town should know about the grant, which requires no local matching dollars. But if the town gets the grant, it would need an additional $300,000 to do both parts of the stormwater project. The town was considering just doing the north end of the project with the $1 million grant. To pay for the rest of the project, Umbaugh suggested the town could go after a bond anticipation note.
While it's hard to say how bids for the project would come out in a year, Umbaugh said today they're seeing bids come in 15 to 20 percent below expectations. If the wastewater project bids come in below expectations, the town could have remaining bond money to put toward the stormwater project.
The bond anticipation note would add another $5 per month to residents' sewer bill.
Eric Carlin, utilities superintendent, said the stormwater grant will be awarded July 11, but that may be pushed back. Umbaugh said the town can't wait until the 11th to decide whether or not to do a bond or bond anticipation note because of the deadlines OCRA imposes on the $600,000 grant for the town to release the funds by July 1.
For the stormwater grant, Carlin said there are 125 applicants vying for up to $1 million each of the $25 million available.
The council will decide on whether or not to pursue a bond anticipation note for the stormwater project at the special May 17th meeting.
In March, the town council discussed the old, blue Richard Surface building. The town council decided to send another letter to Surface. If the town didn't hear anything, the town would proceed with tearing it down.
Surface did send a letter back to the town council. His letter states he bought the building at a public auction from the government. It was already vacant when he bought it, and he would make no promises about what he was going to do with it.
"I will not stand by and be strong armed and loud mouthed by an overzealous town board for one person's personal interest and to use public funds and public employs (sic) to achieve his private ambitions," the letter states.
Surface's letter also reads, "I will not tear the building down. It is an investment to my future."
Surface's letter says the town could pay him $15,000 and then tear down the building, but he would keep the property. Or the town could buy the property including the lot for $35,000 and be done with it. The third option he offers is for the town to "quit harassing me and get on with it."
Simpson said he'd rather see Surface fix up the property and keep paying property taxes on it.
It was agreed that Carlin would look at the property and see what needs to be done. The town then will mow the lawn and possibly make other repairs, and then bill Surface for the work if Surface doesn't do the work himself by May 27.
MENTONE - With the town council's blessing, the Mentone Police Dept. will be a part of a countywide police reporting system.
Monday night, Town Marshal Jim Eads told the council that the law enforcement agencies from around the county had a meeting the other day. A Cisco representative talked about how the county is upgrading its system to do more in field reporting. Cisco wanted to see if it was possible to offer all the county's police departments an opportunity to share one database.
By sharing a database, if an officer from Mentone arrests a person from Silver Lake, the officer could check the database to see what the person's history is from Silver Lake or any other area in the county. Currently, local law enforcement agencies in the county do not share data.
The cost for Mentone to participate is $3,000, but $2,000 of the costs are one-time software fees. Eads said Cisco will allow the town to wait until 2011 to pay the costs, which is what the town council voted to do because of the budget constraints this year.
Clerk-Treasurer Barbara Ross said the town will have to cut its budget next year because of the economy.
Eads said Warsaw, Winona Lake and the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Dept. are planning to participate. Many other departments also said they were going to jump on board, he said. While he wasn't sure about the number, he said Warsaw was looking at buying 35 software licenses so 35 officers can work on the system at one time.
While other departments will be able to view Mentone Police Dept.'s data, Eads said only Mentone officers will be able to tweak it.
"I say we're definitely interested in it," said Tim Croy, council president.
In other business, the town council:
n Announced large trash pickup day is may 19. Items should not be put in the streets. A list of items that can be taken is available from Ross.
n Heard from Housing Opportunities of Warsaw Director Pam Kennedy on her work for community block grants for housing. She left copies of applications for the Day of Caring and the Housing Improvement Program with the board.
