By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
A “big chunk of money” is involved with this year’s street repaving and sidewalk improvements in Decatur, so city officials want to take plenty of time looking over bids for the major project.
Four bids for the contract were opened at council’s previous meeting, and it was expected that a contract would be awarded at council’s January 7 meeting.
However, no members of the city’s board of works, which will make the final decision on which bid to take and award the contract, felt comfortable making the decision at the January 7 meeting.
So, with the bids good for 60 days, it was decided that further study would be the best course.
Mayor Dan Rickord, a member of the board via his position, said he still had some questions involving the bids and was for holding off a final decision.
“It’s a pretty big chunk of money; I’m for looking into it further,” board member Craig Coshow said. “It’s our job to do our due diligence.”
The bids, which vary in several ways, are as follows:
Milestone Construction (3 Indiana locations), $1,868,347.69.
Brooks Construction (Fort Wayne) $1,876,217.00.
Wayne Asphalt (Fort Wayne), $1,918,627.40.
DC Construction Services (Pendleton), $1,499,410.72.
Decatur was awarded a grant of $1,456,125 through the Indiana Department of Transportation’s Community Crossing program, an initiative which has provided the city with numerous street re-pavings through millions of dollars in grants over the years.
The city will come up with a 25% match on the new deal, which will amount to roughly $363,000.
City Operations Manager Jeremy Gilbert said previously that he was extremely pleased with the bids.
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