Bid accepted for industrial park road work

A Topeka construction company on Monday was named the winning bidder for the Holton Industrial Park street improvement project by the Holton City Commission.

Commissioners approved a $910,810.20 bid from Kansas Heavy Construction of Topeka for removal of existing streets and construction of new concrete streets at the industrial park. The construction company was one of three that submitted bids for the industrial park road project, and Bruce Rinkes of Holton’s King Engineering, which is overseeing the project, said all three companies submitted bids that were well below the engineer estimate of $975,000.

The other two bidders were Bettis Asphalt of Topeka, which submitted a bid of $923,151.16, and Kolde Construction of St. Marys, which submitted a bid of $933,420.77.

Holton City Manager Bret Bauer said on Monday that while none of the three bidders were “local vendors or businesses,” they may hire local subcontractors to do part of the work. Rinkes noted that he had contacted several contractors, including a few in the Holton area, and while some of them had expressed interest in the project, they could not fit it into their schedules.

Bauer said he and Rinkes “found only good things and a high quality of work” in Kansas Heavy Construction’s profile, with Rinkes noting that in recent months, the firm has been involved in the “makeover” of Kansas Avenue in downtown Topeka. Holton Street Superintendent Rex Cameron also gave his support to Kansas Heavy Construction’s bid and previous work.

“I’m tickled to death with this bid,” Cameron said. “Everything looks good, and I’m anxious to get this job done.”

One local contractor who was not “tickled” about the bidding process contested whether his contribution to the process was left out by the three bidding firms. Travis Amon, representing Brahma Excavation of Holton, said he submitted his company’s bid for dirt work to all three firms, but did not get a reply from those companies in a timely manner.

Amon also told commissioners that one of the construction firms had requested Brahma’s bid price for dirt work, but then decided to do its own dirt work if the company was named the winning bidder on the project.

“To me, it’s bad business to say you’re going to use somebody’s number, then turn around and use your own number,” he said.

Rinkes responded to Amon’s complaint by noting that what happened was “just part of the business,” and supposedly, the only way to avoid getting the runaround from prime contractors is to become a prime contractor.

“It’s just like selling cars, period,” Rinkes said. “There is nothing sacred about anybody’s bid.”

Bauer added that the city did not receive a bid from Brahma for the work and noted that construction companies interested in “subcontracting” are required to submit bids to prime contractors.

Rinkes later noted that he met with tenants at the industrial park to discuss the street improvement project with them, and all of them were “tremendous to work with” on the construction process. The only drawback to the upcoming work, he added, is that “we’re going to have to travel through a lot of these people’s yards” to get the job done, but business owners have asked him if there is anything they can do to expedite the process.

The city’s industrial park is located north of the city limits on U.S. Highway 75 and includes an estimated three-quarters of a mile worth of streets. The commission had earmarked $1 million in this year’s budget for road improvements in the industrial park, noting an intent to pay for the improvements with existing cash rather than issuing debt to do it and pay interest on that debt later.

Chip-and-seal roads in the industrial park had been heavily deteriorated in recent years due to heavy trucks that utilize those roads, and in December of last year, Cameron recommended rebuilding the roads with concrete. It had been discussed whether city street crews could go out and do the work, but Cameron and Bauer had previously said it would be better to have the job contracted out so that city crews could concentrate on the annual street repair program.

In other business on Monday, commissioners:

* Approved minutes from the commission’s Monday, July 6 meeting, along with budget appropriations made since that meeting.

* Heard the city’s audit report from Mike Peroo of Overland Park in regard to the city’s budget for 2016 (see related story). Commissioners also set a public hearing on the proposed 2016 budget for Monday, Aug. 3, during the commission’s next regular meeting.

* Heard a comment from Bauer about calls received about excess water running into curbs and ditches. He noted that Utility Services was performing sandblasting work on the inner walls of the city’s standpipe water tower, so the water had to be drained because of pressure issues inside the pipe.

* Heard comments from Commissioner Dan Brenner about the recent police call report, in which the police department was “real busy” with animal control calls but 911 hang-up calls were “down.”

* Heard a comment from Commissioner Twila White about the traffic signal at the intersection of Fourth Street and New York Avenue. White said she had received a complaint about people having to wait too long at the intersection because of the signal. Controlling the signal lengths is the job of the Kansas Department of Transportation, commissioners noted.

* Heard comment from Bauer that the city received a donation for the purchase of body cameras for the police department, but noted it would not be “a good spend of money at this point in time” due to current Kansas Legislature discussion on whether body cameras would become mandatory equipment for law enforcement officers.

* Heard a suggestion from Mayor Robert Dieckmann about removing some stop signs at Fifth Street and Colorado Avenue. Bauer said he did not want to do anything to jeopardize the Holton Elementary School project currently going on in that area, adding that “there’s going to be some major changes as far as traffic flow” in the area near Colorado Elementary School.

* Adjourned the meeting at approximately 8:30 p.m. All commissioners were present, including Dieckmann, Brenner, White, Erich Campbell and Tim Morris.