By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
“Oh, that’s good,” Jeremy Gilbert, Decatur’s operations manager, said quietly while seated in front of city council as the first bid for the latest Community Crossings project was read Tuesday night.
Decatur has been 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, which will amount to roughly $363,000.
The bid’s, in order they were opened and read, were:
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.
All the bids were taken under advisement, with a decision to be announced and a contract awarded at council’s next meeting, January 7.
Gilbert said after the meeting that he was extremely pleased with the bids; all four will be thoroughly studied.
A total of nine streets, totaling 2.11 miles, will be resurfaced next year through the grant. But this CC grant, believed to be the city’s eighth overall since the program began in 2016, also will provide a large amount of sidewalk work.
“Yes, an extensive amount of sidewalks (will be done with the funds), probably more sidewalks then concrete,” Gilbert said.
“We are very excited to receive the Community Crossings funding once again,” exclaimed Mayor Dan Rickord when the grant was announced last month. “This component of Gov. Holcomb’s Next Level Roads program has had a tremendous impact on local roads all over the state of Indiana. We are very thankful to the governor and our state legislators for continuing this incredible program.”
This is Decatur’s second round of funding by the CC program this year. Last spring Decatur received $810,508.10, and its match of $253,300, boosted total funds available for the work to a little over $1 million: $1,013,135.12.
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