Each week, City Manager Tom Aspell spends hours penning the script to his movie, Danger is How You Aspell My Middle Name, only to find out it was never greenlighted, or any color lighted. Furious, he shreds it into tiny pieces, which spell out a city memo!
Bummer, dude
Hope you bet the over
The city has had an unexpected setback in selecting a contractor for the Main Street Project, Aspell writes. Based on the number of contractors in attendance at the pre-bid meetings, the city had anticipated receiving more than one bid for the project. And we anticipate receiving a Valentine from Kate Upton, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. (But it might!)
Unfortunately, the city received only one bid and it was significantly over the estimate the consulting engineers, McFarland Johnson, had developed for the project. Like, a lot over.
The questions you have are probably the same as the city’s. First, why aren’t more contractors bidding? Second, why is there such a disparity in costs between the project estimate and the contractor’s bid? Third, when is lunch?
City staff is working diligently to answer these questions. The city’s engineering staff is reaching out to those contractors that attended the pre-bid meetings to find out why they ultimately chose not to bid, and to get their feedback on the scope of the project, and also to give them tiny candy hearts that say “Love Me.”
In addition, the city has asked McFarland Johnson to provide a detailed analysis of the unit costs of the bid in relation to their original project estimate, as well as to other recent construction projects in the state and region. Sounds mathy. The city’s main goal is to understand how and why there was such a disparity.
City staff will continue to be in close collaboration with our federal counterparts at the Federal Highway Administration to discuss possible alternatives. It is important to note that we have received no indication from FHWA that our grant is in jeopardy. Or on Jeopardy.
The details of the analysis will be reviewed and possible alternatives will be discussed with city council at the Feb. 10 city council meeting.
Spring forward
Time to get sporty, y’all
The Parks & Recreation Department will hold a youth spring sports league registration fair Feb. 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Heights Community Center (former Dame School), Aspell writes. The fair will not include fried dough or one of those awesome huge slides.
All of Concord’s youth spring sports leagues will be in attendance under one roof, presumably the one over the community center. Come ask questions and sign your child up for a league.
Soiled reputation
Backfill is a fun word
The contractor made excellent progress last week in relocating the soil stockpiles on South Commercial Street to the Allied Leather Tannery site, where it will be used as backfill, Aspell writes. He also made excellent progress in his Words with Friends game.
Weather permitting, removal of the piles should be completed during the week of Feb. 10. The weather is still applying for said permit.
