By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
City officials are looking to have an estimate on the cost of the sidewalk, curb and gutter project they’ve cobbled together by mid-July, though they are already estimating the work will extend beyond this year into next.
The project — whereby city residents voluntarily sign up to have repairs made to the sidewalk, curb and gutter abutting their property — has grown far beyond the city’s original expectations, city Director of Operations Kevin Dorwart noted at last Wednesday’s meeting of the city Streets Committee. The project includes 3 miles of curb and 2 miles of sidewalk.
The project will be advertised for construction bids next week. Public Works Director Jack Rice noted that the bid opening date has been set for July 18 with a look towards selecting a contractor for the project by Aug. 1.
Once the city has a full estimate of the project cost, city officials will be able to go to individual residents and give them an estimate of exactly what their final, individual cost will be. The city set up the program to give those who signed up for it the option to back out once the cost estimates are in, even though the city actually has the authority to force any resident to repair their sidewalk or curbing.
“When the bids come in, we’ll be busy contacting people to notify them of their estimated cost and then they have the option of backing out,” Rice said.
Even if a few people backed out, the project would still be orders of magnitude greater than city officials had ever dreamed when they opened the program for sign-ups late last year. Because of that, Dorwart told the Streets Committee it’s a near certainty the project will go into 2018.
“Because of the timing of this, we’re probably going to have to allow (the contractor) in contract to go over and have a winter shutdown,” Dorwart said.
However, he added that is not necessarily a negative, as he noted that in initial conversations with contractors interested in bidding on the project, they have indicated that including a winter shutdown in the contract could get the city a better deal on the cost.
“We came to the decision that we can no way get this thing done this calendar year, and that could get us better prices,” Dorwart said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.