By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Three bid openings took place at the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting on Friday, May 3.

The first bid opening was for Frontage Road. The bids included a base bid and a mandatory additive alternate bid for Lake Village Lane.

Phend & Brown’s base bid was $193,353.16, with the alternate bid being $166,308.08. Brooks Construction submitted a base bid of $214,875, with an alternate bid of $184,000. The third bidder was Niblock Excavating Inc. with a base bid of $256,035.76 and an alternate of $186,409.08.

City engineer Aaron Ott asked the board for the bids to be taken under advisement for review with a recommendation to be given at the board’s May 17 meeting. The board approved the request.

The second bid opening was for Lincoln Street, which had two bidders. Phend & Brown offered a base bid of $1,212,300, while Niblock Excavating offered a base bid of $1,137,695.60. The board also took those under advisement.

Public Works and Streets Superintendent Dustin Dillon thanked the contractors that put in bids for the projects. He said he was very happy to see multiple bids for the projects.

After the board meeting, he explained the road projects are both partly funded by Community Crossings 50/50 Matching Grants.

“The Frontage Road (project) will be a mill and resurface, or maybe a little bit of full-depth patching once they come over,” he said. It will extend from right around the corner by Midas Muffler to in front of the Rural King shopping plaza around the Commerce Drive.

The alternate bid for that project was for Lake Village Lane, which is the entrance out to U.S. 30. That will be milled and resurfaced with new striping if the funding is available.

“The Lincoln Street is just the final phase of Hodges Addition back there, so that will be complete reconstruction. We’ll have some stormwater updates, the full reconstruction of the road – new curb, gutter, new sidewalks, ADA ramps, all updated. With the

tree lawn separating the sidewalk from the curb,” Dillon said.

When completed, it will look similar to what Lindberg and Johnson streets did in the previous years.

Sealed quotes for three Ford F250s for the street department also were opened Friday, with two automotive dealers providing quotes.

Kerlin Ford bid $151,469.04 for all three trucks, with a trade-in allowance for the three units at $20,500.

Rice Ford Lincoln Mercury’s price was $49,745 per unit. Total credit for three trade-in vehicles was $17,000. The total price after trade for all three trucks was $132,235.

After reviewing the quotes during the meeting, Dillon recommended to the board that they accept Kerlin’s offer of a final price at $130,969.04 after trade for the three vehicles, which the board unanimously approved.

In other business, the board approved:

• Stormwater Utility Superintendent Brian Davison’s request to purchase a Bucher North American V65th Street Sweeper for $324,000 from Brown Equipment Co. The new street sweeper will replace a 7-year-old street sweeper at the street department.

Davison said it was planned in their budget.

Dillon said the new one is identical to one they purchased four to five years ago.

Reust made a “slight” correction to what Davison presented. He said the actual retail price of the street sweeper is $375,000, but through the Sourcewell contract they were able to save 8.3%, which was $31,000 off the retail price, bringing the price down to $344,000. The trade-in of $20,000 brought the price down to $324,000.

“So it’s $51,000 less than if they would have paid retail,” Reust stated.

• Davison’s request to enter into an agreement with Wessler Engineering Inc. to do a feasibility study for $23,400 on the wastewater utility’s digester gas utilization.

• A change to the facade improvement matching grant program agreement between the city and Main Street Warsaw.

Reust explained that previously the city funded up to $5,000 for a facade grant. After some discussion, that amount was upped to up to $10,000. The change reflects that increase.

The city budgeted up to $50,000 for the matching grant program.

• Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department Superintendent Larry Plummer’s request to contribute $3,500 out of the parks fund budget to the Winona Lake Warsaw Independence Day Celebration display. The fireworks will be held June 29, with a rain date of June 30.

• Kosciusko County Farms & Artisan Market’s road closure request. Center Street between Buffalo and Lake streets will be closed from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every Saturday from May 4 to Sept. 28, with the market taking place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The market also will be held in the City Hall parking plaza every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. May 8 to Sept. 25.

• City Planner Justin Taylor’s request for the Warsaw Public Arts Commission to accept $5,000 in grant funds from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation. The funds will be put toward current fundraising efforts that the WPAC is undertaking to put a new piece of art in Central Park, as well as an arts campaign that WPAC has undertaken, he said.

• Warsaw Police Department Chief Scott Whitaker’s request to apply for the annual Patrick Leahy Bulletproof Vest Partnership grant. Every five years, the WPD’s vests are rotated out and replaced, so the grant funds would go toward that and for any new police hires.

The vests currently cost $1,125 each, so the grant would be up to 50% of the cost, he said. The vests are budgeted into the WPD budget.

• WPD Capt. Joel Beam’s request to enter into a contract with Vector Solutions for three years for $25,234, with an average payment of about $8,078 per year.

“Vector Solutions has a lot in this software. The main thing that I want to use is tracking critical incidents, so we know who is going through what. But it will also do it through confidentiality. So if I have a critical incident, I can put that in there, or if somebody else has a critical incident, they can put it in there as well, and not everybody can see it, just certain people or certain supervisors can see it,” he explained.

It will work hand in hand with the department’s new peer-to-peer they’re trying to establish.

• The new hire and change in payroll report, which included three items. Will Hall is a new seasonal hire at the airport as a line technician and his part-time pay will be $20 per hour. Joel Shilling is the new chief for the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory and his full-time pay will be $3,567.17 biweekly. Aaron Bolinger has a position change to firefighter at the WWFT, effective May 12, and his biweekly pay will be $3,474.78.

• Taylor publicly acknowledged Kim Arnold, whose last day with the city was Friday.

“She’s worked with varying departments and put in a lot of hard work over the last about 20 years with the city, so we really appreciate her and all the work that she’s done to serve the community over the years,” he said.