After a 20-minute discussion Monday, the Clearwater City Council voted, 3-2 to award the contract for the Southeast Area Street Reconstruction Project to Molitor Excavating at a price of $834,575.34.

 

Molitor had the lowest bid of nine companies,  but there were questions about whether the company has had any issues with past projects in the city.

The company was the contractor for the Prairie and Maple Street Project, which did have some issues. Engineer Joe Pelawa from Bolton & Menk said that project started out as a street paving project and turned into a drainage/stormwater project, which wasn’t the contractor’s fault.

 

But Councilman Richard Petty said he would be more comfortable if staff did some research to find out if the city had any problems with the contractor.

Councilman Vern Scott said he wasn’t happy with all the curbing proposed for the new project. He felt the standards weren’t being met with the lower, surmountable curb at intersections or in the cul-de-sac on Porter Circle.

 

Petty and Scott wanted to table a vote until April, but the motion to table failed.

 

On the subsequent vote, Mayor Andrea Lawrence and Councilmen Wayne Kruchten and Kris Crandall voted to award the bid to Molitor. Petty and Scott voted against.  

 

Pelawa said the contractor intends to begin the project in June.

 

Earlier in the meeting, the council tabled a vote to finance the project.

 

Jessica Green from Northland Securities presented two scenarios for bonding the project based on a $1,085,000 bond amount. The first was a 15-year General Obligation Bond with an average interest rate of 2.89%.

 

Under that scenario, the city would pay an average of $92,000 a year in debt service, with the overall interest at $280,532.53 over the life of the bond. The annual tax levy would be about $72,000.

 

The second scenario was a 20-year bond with an average interest rate of 3.137%. The overall interest for the life of the bond would be $404,806.63. The annual tax levy would be $58,000.

 

Green said she was looking for guidance from the council about whether they preferred a 15 or 20-year bond.

 

Pelawa said the life expectancy on a road was about 20 years. He said it would be better to have the levy end earlier, otherwise people would be paying for a road until the next project. 

 

“As soon as you write the last check they come along with another project and your assessment doesn’t go away,” he said.

 

Administrator Kevin Kress said the council didn’t have to make an immediate decision since the contractor wouldn’t be starting until June. Also, since the low bid was under the engineer’s estimate, the bond amount could be lowered. The amount could also be lowered if the council decided to use water/sewer enterprise funds to offset some of the cost.

 

The council agreed to hold off on the bonding decision.

 

Other bidders for the contract were: Kuechle Underground $839,999.75; Larson Excavating $848,258.95; Astech $857,786.85; C&L Excavating $870,075.25; Latour Construction $893,289.45; RL Larson $959,617.90; Northdale Construction $971,314.55; JR Ferche $1,075,034.70.