Celina Aldermen awarded one of two water booster pump station projects Tuesday night.
The two projects would serve the Free Hill and Cedar Hill Communities. The board considered rebidding both projects, as there were several contractors who were unaware of the projects being out for bid. Mayor Luke Collins said the board should at least approve the Free Hill pump station bid, as that pump could go out any minute due to its old age.
“Me personally, I like to try and help local people, but you know, if Clifton says Free Hill’s needs to be done, I would recommend going ahead with it and rebidding the Cedar Hill,” Collins said. “I know it’s risky.”
Replacing the Free Hill pump station will cost an estimated $443,000.The Cedar Hill project’s low bid was an estimated $659,000. Consulting Engineer Tucker England said the only issue with rebidding is that most of the time, the bids come back higher than the first time.
“In our experience, we have noticed that when we do rebid things, it’s funny that you can take things out of your scope and sometimes you still get higher prices,” England said. “I don’t know why, but the way that I have heard it explained is that nothing is ever as cheap as it is right now.”
England said second lowest bid came in at $900,000. Collins said the second round of bids needs to be at least similar.
“We need it to stay around that $600,000 mark, you know, if it goes into a million, it’s not panning out for the city, cause we were counting on having some money left over from that to help with the sewer plant,” Collins said. “So if you get into a million, there won’t be anything left over.”
England said rebidding the Cedar Hill project will reopen at least another 30-day bid period. England said he asked the contractor for a timeline for the project, but was told that the timeline would be laid out next week in a pre-construction meeting.
In other business, the board approved to donate $500 each to the Clay County High School Golf Team, Boys Tennis Team, and Girls Tennis Team.
