Chesterton Tribune

 

 

23rd St storm sewer bids rejected on technicality; quotes now being sought

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By KEVIN NEVERS

Chesterton Town Engineer Mark O’Dell was figuring the bids for Phase I of the 23rd Street storm sewer replacement project would come in between $100,000 to $110,000.

In any case, he thought, they wouldn’t be far off the $150,000 threshold at which a municipality is required to go through the statutory bidding process.

In fact, the bids--opened at the Stormwater Management Board’s May meeting--proved significantly lower than O’Dell’s estimate, ranging from a low of $81,019.50 to $108,380.

Even so, at its meeting Monday night the board voted 3-0 to reject them all and release the bid bonds, after at least one of the bidders failed to submit a Form 96, required by the State Board of Accounts for projects whose cost is expected to exceed $100,000. Among other things, a bidder makes a financial disclosure in the Form 96 and lists prior job references, to assist a municipality in assessing how responsible a bidder that company is, that is, whether it’s actually capable of fulfilling a given contract to spec.

Members then voted 3-0 to expand very slightly the scope of Phase I--by extending it to a point 40 or 50 feet south, past the private driveway entrance to Westchester Village on the Green--as well as to solicit quotes, inasmuch as the Phase I costs are likely to fall well below the $150,000 threshold.

As last year’s videotaping of the 23rd Street storm sewer revealed, long stretches of the pipe are in danger of collapse, with numerous joint failures, the infiltration of large amounts of sand and sediment, and the “egging” of the line in places.

O’Dell had originally estimated the cost of the entire replacement at between $250,000 and $300,000 but in light of the favorable quotes for Phase I that projection may have been a little on the high side. Nonetheless, this will be the first major project in the last three years not to be funded through the $800,000 bond issued in 2011. Cash on the barrel will be used instead, with moneys from the Cumulative Sewer Fund, which currently totals around $407,000.

New Floodplain Map

In other business, MS4 Operator Jennifer Gadzala reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to formally issue a new floodplain map in September. This final version of the map will incorporate a slew of GIS data provided by Gadzala during her appeal last year of a preliminary version, which mistakenly included some 40 properties in the Sand Creek floodplain and by doing so would have made the property owners subject to the purchase of costly flood insurance.

Gadzala has reviewed the final version of FEMA’s new map and, as she reported on Monday, “there are a few areas where the lines are not going to change” from the preliminary version.

Meaning, she explained, that seven to eight property owners--if they want to remain exempt from the necessity of getting flood insurance--will have to file a “letter of map revision” with FEMA.

Gadzala said that the Stormwater Utility has notified those property owners and promised to provide them with the data needed to prepare that letter.

Streetsweeping

Meanwhile, Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg reported that the whole of the Town of Chesterton has been street-swept, fully a month before he anticipated the job’s being done.

That, thanks to the board’s purchase of a new streetsweeper earlier in the spring and the expedited training of a man in its operation.

The Street Department now has two streetsweepers in the fleet.

Schnadenberg said that one of them will now be tasked to re-sweeping areas of the town where tree debris tends to accumulate: Morgan Park and South Second Street, for example.

Fishing Derby Postponed

The last week of rain has left Indian Springs Park in Porter--the venue of the first annual Kids’ Fishing Derby, scheduled for Wednesday, June 17--miserably soggy underfoot. As a result, Gadzala announced, the derby will be held instead two weeks later, on Wednesday, June 24.

Kids who have registered have already been notified, Gadzala said. There are still some spots left, however, for those 6 to 12 who want to learn how to fish or otherwise demonstrate their skills. For more information, call the Porter Park Department at (219) 921-1687 or visit http://ms4girl.wix.com/kids-fishing-derby

May in Review

In May the Stormwater Utility ran a deficit of $4,359 and in the year-to-date is running a surplus of $7,784.

 

Posted 6/17/2015

 
 
 
 

 

 

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