City seeking new bids for 2004 paving project

The City of Clarendon last week rejected the only bid for its proposed 2004 paving project after the price came in at almost twice the expected amount.

The Board of Aldermen directed city engineers to advertise the project again to try to generate more interest and get more reasonable quotes.

City Administrator Sean Pate said the city expected to pay about $180,000 to pave 11 blocks on portions of Fourth and Seventh streets. That estimate was based on work the city had done last year in the southeast part of town under a disaster grant.

Contractor J. Lee Milligan submitted the only bid of $355,840.60, which city officials saw as an indication that contractors are too busy right now and are not hungry for work.

“As we get closer to winter months, companies will need more work, and we’d expect bids to drop,” Pate said.

The new bids will be required to be broken down so that the city can review what each part of the project will cost, Pate said. City crews could then be utilized for some aspects of the project, such as rough grade cuts, in order to control costs.

The city is also watching the calendar as summer months draw to a close and there are fewer warm weather days to do the paving.

“Our engineers say we’re still in the clear,” Pate said, noting that he doesn’t want to split the project into fall and spring phases. “It’s to our benefit to do it all at once.

City Hall begins advertising for new paving bids this week. Those will be opened on August 19 for possible action by the Board of Aldermen on August 24.

In the meantime, the administrator said city workers will continue replacing and lowering utility lines on West Seventh Street in preparation for paving.

Pate said that water lines on that street have already been lowered where they were too shallow and that the sewer line there was needing replacing anyway.

“We’ll just be money ahead by replacing those lines ahead of paving the street,” he said.

In other city business last Tuesday, Jewell Judd returned to City Hall to again ask aldermen to consider closing the alley beside her property in Block 182B. She said she wanted the alley closed to prevent her neighbor from “driving that Frito truck across my driveway,” but aldermen pointed out that doing so would also prevent her from getting into her own carport. City officials told Judd she would also have to have her property properly surveyed before any further action could be taken.

Jean Stavenhagen addressed the board representing the Saints Roost Museum and updated the aldermen on the depot renovation. The work has been completed under a federal grant administered by the Texas Department of Transportation, but a large unexpected administrative cost has been incurred.

The board approved assisting the museum with $500 per month for August and September from the Motel Bed Tax Fund and agreed to consider further assistance in the new budget year.

The city ad valorem tax rate was discussed, and aldermen voted to keep the rate at its present $0.48555 per $100 valuation.

A budget amendment of $29,000 was approved for the 2003-2004 fiscal year to cover the cost of additional work requested by the city during last year’s paving project.