Glidden city officials are looking to scale back phase one of the Liberty Rock Plaza project due to a lack of interest from contractors in their first attempt to solicit bids. At Monday’s city council meeting, a public hearing was held for bid openings on phase one with no written or public comments from individuals. According to City Administrator Brooke Peterson, no bids were submitted from contractors for the project, so the council is looking to reduce its scope in the hopes a smaller project would be more palatable to contractors. Bolton & Menk, Inc. out of Jefferson are the engineers on the project, and Peterson says they provided some ideas for city officials.
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Phase one of the project involves electrical and concrete work near Liberty Rock, just off Highway 30. She says there also could be some changes to the concrete sections of the project.
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Peterson adds the city is in the bid threshold, so they will probably look to make modifications and get quotes. A bid threshold is a statutory amount of money with which contract agencies must seek bids. The state threshold is currently set at $65,000, and Peterson says they will not have to worry about reaching that amount with the city scaling back. According to the engineer’s estimate, the project’s concrete portion would cost approximately $11,000 before changes. However, with changes included, the cost would need to be calculated again. According to Peterson, with public works taking over the electrical portion, the city will save around $6,000 by using city equipment and materials. Phase one of the project was estimated to cost anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000.