Putting Out Projects for Bids Occupies Savanna City Council and Sparks Debate

Michael Miller For The Prairie Advocate News

The theme of the night was “bids” as the Savanna City Council read the received bids for construction of the City’s Skateboard Park and moved to go out for bids to renovate 333 Chicago Avenue.

The relatively brief meeting was attended by Council members Jack Fosdick, Lois Hunsaker, Jeff Griswold, Bill Grummitt, Peg Haffey, Merle Long and Bill Robinson. Also attending were Mayor Larry Stebbins, City Clerk Paul Hartman, Comptroller/Treasurer Sheryl Sipe, Police Chief Michael Moon, Fire Chief Shawn Picolotti and a small audience.

Willett Hofmann’s revised proposal for their professional services for the work at 333 Chicago Avenue highlighted the evening’s agenda. This proposal entails a bidding phase, a final design phase and a construction phase. Fosdick, prompted by a recommendation to approve this measure, made a motion to approve, seconded by Grummitt. In discussion of the item, Griswold said he “appreciated the open house” that the City had last weekend. He then asked “We put it out in the paper that we’d have an open house, but it said ‘no questions and answers’. Mayor Stebbins asked if he wanted to know why and Griswold replied “sure, you can tell me.” Stebbins went on to say “if we had a question and answer period, it would have to be an official council meeting and we’d have to take minutes and we could not walk me around the building and ask a question because you’d have to record it. So if we have to set it in a spot just like this, you wouldn’t be able to have a meeting anyway.”

“If we weren’t going to do questions and answers then, then why didn’t we propose when we would do questions and answers?” Griswold responded.

“I did talk to people and I answered their questions,” the mayor said. “...if you’d read your ethics book, you’d see that that’s the way it has to be handled. We are bound by laws that we cannot meet in a body of three people...”

Griswold interjected. “OK, but we could have had an agenda item tonight where we could have had public comments before we get to the ‘meat and potatoes’ which is right now, we’re going to try to accept the engineering firm and so now the next payment is for $35,500.00 plus $4,000.00 for bids, so we should be sure that that’s what the public wants us to do before we do that. And up till now, it hasn’t been publicly stated as far as when they can come and voice their opinions as far as a ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ as far as if that’s how they’d like us to use the funds.”

“OK, we’re going to hopefully pass the budget next meeting,” Stebbins replied. “There’s an item on there, a million dollars for street repairs...if we have a public forum every time we try to do City business, we’re going to run out of hours real quick. The street project is much bigger than this project.”

“And it’s probably in a ‘higher need’ category, too,” Griswold answered.

“We’ve been working on a City building project for...” Stebbins began, and Moon said, “I’ve got documents dating back to ‘96.”

“Sadly enough,” the mayor said. “We haven’t been working that long on getting our streets taken care of, we’re doing that backwards, I apologize for that. We didn’t have the funds to do our capital expenditure.”

Stebbins continued. “I had two people that said we made a very good buy...both of them would be happy to have that building at that price...there was one gentleman who voiced a lot of disgust about the prevailing wage of $52.00 an hour for general labor...I explained that this is not by our choice, we have laws and we have to follow them. Several people were impressed by the size of the building.”

Mr. Stebbins also said one strong point of the building was its two public accessible handicapped restrooms. “This is something we are required to have. We need to do something. This is where we’re at after all these years, and it does fit into the budget plan.”

Robinson mentioned the possibility of having the City workers do the demolition work. He said even paying those workers time and a half would be less than half the wages of the prevailing wage is. He said a lot of City workers indicated they would be willing to do this and this would defray the basic construction cost of the project.

Chief Moon said he heard some comments from people who didn’t understand the prevailing wage. “I think it was a very good idea to have that, “ he said. “What better option for the public than to come view the plans, come view the facility...this item has been debated going on years now, so the public isn’t here with their pitchforks ready to lynch you...You know it’s needed, something’s got to be done, this is the most cost effective way, I think we can get the price down.”

A roll call vote was taken and the Council unanimously approved the agreement proposal.

The Council then subsequently (and unanimously) approved a motion by Fosdick to go out for bids for work on the project.

Fosdick delivered the Finance Committee report which encompassed minutes from three previous committee meetings. He reported that Willett, Hoffman and Associates had reduced their cost proposal for renovation of 333 Chicago Avenue by $10,000.00 by removing the parking lot and sidewalk portion of the project, and that the committee to recommend this revised proposal to the full Council. He also noted that the committee had recommended a 3 percent wage increase for non-union City employees, with other employees increases being addressed by collective bargaining. The committee also recommended approval of equipment and projects in the 2010-2011 Capital Improvement List. These last two items were approved to be added to the budget by the full Council.

The Council accepted a letter from Bill Scott, detailing his resignation from the Police Pension Board.

Subsequent to this, the Mayor recommended the appointment of Linda Yenney to fill the remainder of Mr. Scott’s two year term, to last until 4/30/11, and the Council moved to accept and unanimously approved this.

The Council opened sealed bids for work on the City’s Skateboard Park project, first dealing with the work involving the required reinforced concrete slab. Four bids were received for this work; from Harn Construction from Freeport, Illinois for $17,000.00, from Colgan Excavating ($10,620.00 for labor, and $800.00 for equipment for a total of $11,420.00), one from Rockefellow Construction from Savanna, Illinois for $9,100.00 for a four inch slab, with an alternate bid for $9.645.00 for a six inch slab, and one from Behn’s Concrete from Sabula, Illinois for $6,250.00 for a four inch slab, and $7,500.00 for a six inch slab.

The City received two bids for the fixed facilities portion of the project. The first was from Spohn Ranch from Industry, California. Two options were presented from the company, the first option being for $59,948.80, and the second option for $55,045.83. One bid was received from American Ramp Company for a total of $58,329.42.

Both of these bids will be sent to the Skateboard Park/Snowmobile Trail Committee for further review.

The Council reviewed Resolution #999 dealing with a request from the Carroll County Humane Society for support in securing a grant from PetSmart Charities for funds to be used in spaying and neutering of feral cats in Carroll County. Mayor Stebbins announced that he had been informed by Heartland Pet Welfare, based in Savanna, that they too are going for this same grant. The Council voted unanimously to pass this resolution, reading it by title only.

Next the Council considered a supplemental resolution (#1000) to commit MFT (Motor Fuel Tax) funds in the amount of $20,379.65 to cover engineering costs for the Fourth Street Retaining Wall project. This resolution was unanimously approved, after a motion by Fosdick which was seconded by Robinson.

Pam Brown of the Savanna Chamber of Commerce issued an invitation to the Council to attend a web launch on April 12th of this year, from a new organization. The website is www.travelmississippi.org and the launch will be held on the Figge Museum in Davenport, Iowa at 10:00 a.m.

Mick Morfey also addressed the Council with some concerns, including his concern that other area towns are making low interest loans available to potential residents in anticipation of the sale of the Thomson prison to the federal government while Savanna is not doing the same.

Savanna City Council meetings are held the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month and are open to the public.