Several contracts were approved by the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission, including the execution of one for the CR 300N roundabout project.
Phend & Brown was previously approved and awarded the CR 300N project by the Commission and Board of Public Works and Safety.
“All we are doing today is executing that contract,” City Planner Jeremy Skinner told the Commission at its meeting Monday. The signed contract will be sent to Phend & Brown.
The contract is for $1,880,359.30, which was the low bid.
Tim Meyers, Commission president, asked if there were any changes to the contract since they approved it. Skinner said no, but construction hasn’t started yet.
“We have one utility conflict we’re working on now that will probably be a change, but I don’t know to what extent, whether it’ll be a dollar change or if it will wash out. We’re going to have to reroute a storm pipe most likely to avoid conflict with a water line,” Skinner said.
The project includes the roundabout to Shelden Street and CR 300N, as well as the reconstruction of 300N from the bridge to Shelden Street and a mill-and-fill from Shelden Street to Ind. 15. Right now, the intersection is just a stop sign at Shelden Street.
The project is slated to be completed by the end of this calendar year, Skinner said.
Asked when the work will begin, he responded, “I’m sure they wanted to start yesterday. Given the other projects they have under construction and the rain, I imagine it will start soon.”
The second contract the Commission approved was with The Troyer Group for engineering services for the North Pointe Drive rehabilitation project.
“This project will be rehabilitating North Pointe Drive from Husky Trail to Mariners Drive, to kind of tie in to the improvements we’ve done to Mariners Drive as well as Husky Trail and to include sidewalks,” Skinner said.
The issue was brought up about a year ago by area residents whose children walk along North Pointe Drive to get to Harrison Elementary School.
Skinner said he had a conversation with Warsaw Street Superintendent Jeff Beeler about what his timeline was for making improvements or changes to North Pointe Drive and Beeler indicated it was pretty high up on his schedule. They got the project together and submitted it for Community Crossings grant funding from the state, which was approved.
“So 50 percent of this project will be paid for by state funds, and this is the engineering contract to complete the engineering on that and bid that out yet this year and start construction,” Skinner said.
The contract before the Commission had language in it that was struck out. It was approved on the condition the Commission members get a clean copy and Meyers sign it.
Skinner said the engineering contract was for $64,200. There is a not-to-exceed $5,000 reimbursable expense for any unplanned copies or oversight on the project bid documents.
The project is slated to be completed by year’s end.
A third contract approved was with Baker Tilly Municipal Advisers for overseeing bond issues for the Buffalo Street and Airport Industrial Park projects to make sure they were in compliance with federal regulations.
In other business, the Redevelopment Commission:
• Approved the May claims, including: $35,637.36, Selge Construction, for the Buffalo Street reconstruction project; $14,001.38, American Structurepoint, for the Buffalo Street plaza design work; $11,075, Dara Howard, for right of way for the CR 300N project; and $4,711.25, Baker Tilly, for arbitrage services for the commission’s bond accounts.
• Discussed the Gatke Corp. property and whether there would be more interest in the old manufacturing site if all the buildings there were demolished or left as is. Cost to demolish all or part of it also was discussed, but no action was taken.
• Heard the city has purchased and closed the gas station at the intersection of Canal and Detroit streets.
“Now we have to clean it up,” Skinner said.
He said he hasn’t had any time yet to get bids for its demolition, but he needs to start working on that.
His main focus has been to get the Buffalo Street plaza out to bid, with bid documents expected to be completed May 17.
“I think we’re in pretty good shape for the plaza and we’ve got our funding from the state through Regional Cities, so we might have some money” in Central TIF to get that demolition of the gas station done.
