After increased costs delayed the project for years, Livingston has awarded the estimated $1.5 million Courthouse Plaza Project.
The aldermen approved the bid, subject to T-DOT approval. Livingston Downtown Revitalization Chair Ray Evans said T-DOT asked the city to meet with the contractor to ensure that the bid worked for all involved.
“Long and short of it is, by the time we were finished with that meeting, we all agreed that the bid was both fair and responsive,” Evans said. “The construction cost and the labor cost in the last two or three years has just gone ballistic and it’s much, much higher than it was before.”
Evans said that T-DOT has tentatively agreed to provide more grant funding for the project. Evans said the city would need to provide an estimated $318,000 to cover the 20 percent match for the grant.
“There’s $115,700 that’s in the downtown revitalization budget that is set aside for this project, so that will cover a significant portion of that,” Evans said. “As of 20 minutes ago, the county commission budget committee agreed to cover 50 percent of the local match, so they agreed to cover $159,000 and change, of the $318,000.”
Evans said the city will send the bid package to T-DOT for review. Evans said funding the project may not be an issue.
“This project will likely start in June, a six-month project,” Evans said. “So that will even roll us over into the next year’s sales tax revenue income, so we’ll have plenty of resources in that to continue the funding if necessary.”
