Recap of the April 16th City Council MeetingTim Hruska, WHKS, and Heather Lukes, MnDOT, were both present at the meeting to give an update on the Highway 44/Main Street project. The itemized bid will not be released to the public until after the bid is awarded, which should happen in the next two weeks. There was only 1 bid and the construction bid came in approximately $290,000 over budget. Tim Hruska also has not seen the itemized bid, but was told the utility portion came under the estimate by around $100,000; however, the highway portion came in over budget by around $400,000. Heather Lukes said MnDOT has several other projects that saw the same increase in cost. Both Tim and Heather said the cost of Bituminous has increased significantly. Once the bid is awarded, our city engineer, Tim Hruska and MnDOT's engineer can sit down with the contractor to see why there is such a change in the cost and to determine if there are others areas of savings. There was some concern from the audience on how these changes would be decided. Councilmember Nancy Nelson stated that no change would be made to the main street plan without the approval of the entire council and that all meeting would be open to the public according to state statute.
Please remember the project has always been estimated to cost around $4.2 million. The actual cost at the 100% plan in December was projected at $4,153,000 and this amount included the 10% contingency for unforeseen costs. With the increase in the construction cost, we are still under the $4,153,000 because of the contingency funds, however, that only leaves around $89,000 for unforeseen costs. Another note is that when Mike Bubany, Financial Adviser from David Drown Associates, estimated the cost for the project, he used the $4,230,000. So the estimated cost for Spring Grove will still be under the estimates. Mike Bubany will be attending the next meeting to discuss the bonding.
It will be important for all citizens to continue to attend the meeting so your voices are heard. Also continue to contact your council members - you can find their names and phone numbers in our first blog post - Keep Your Eye on Main Street Introduction. Please feel free to comment or if you have anything to add to this note or if you have information to share, please email us at sgmainstreetproject@gmail.com so we can create a page.
There has been talk that more will be changed, however, we have not heard or seen details, so please stay informed.
I was at the meeting and agree with this post. The main item from the meeting that frustrated me was the hiring of a second full-time police officer! If the new council is all about saving money - why did they approve hiring another full-time officer. Rachel and Bruce did vote against the hire. - Saundra Solum
ReplyDeleteAs I remember Paul Foltz originally only asked for a part time officer is why did the council change to a full-time officer, and as I recall the council in 2012 voted for a part time officer.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea who they are hiring, but I bet they would have had better candidates if they would have advertised for a full time position. I don't think they need one. Chief Folz did not seem to have reason for another full time position other than he wanted one. What department doesn't want more help? I am really disappointed in the council on this one. There is no need for 2 full time people, especially since they are still planning on covering mostly in the evening. Ridiculous. Thanks to Rachel and Bruce for voting against it. Bruce needs to take control of the meetings away from Nancy, He is the Mayor, not her.
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