By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Hays city commissioners plan to vote next week on whether to accept the low bid for the N. Vine Street Improvement project, a bid that is $3.5 million higher than the engineer's estimate.
The $11.9 million dollar bid from Smoky Hill Construction of Salina. The only other bid was even higher at $12.7 million from KOSS Construction, Topeka.
The estimate by the city's project engineer, WSP of Lenexa, is $8.46 million, while the estimate from the Kansas Department of Transportation is $8.15 million.
During Thursday night's city commission work session, John Braun, city project engineer, reviewed the project details and attributed the high bids primarily to the current economic situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The city is able to cover the higher than estimated cost of construction and (staff) believe it is best to accept the low bid and move forward with the project," Braun told commissioners.
The bid from Smoky Hill Construction, combined with $1.2 million for construction engineering by Kirkham Michael of Ellsworth, brings the project cost total to $13.1 million.
Subtracting the $6 million federal BUILD grant awarded to Hays leaves the city’s share at $7,110,430. KDOT has rounded that to $7,111,000. It is to be paid to KDOT by May 14 from the city's Capital Projects Fund.
KDOT will be administering construction of the project, and Braun assured the commission "I will have my pulse on this."
Reading a prepared statement, commissioner Michael Berges, a financial advisor with Ameriprise Financial, said he is "irritated" by the bid and wonders if Hays is being taken advantage of because it is in a good financial position.
Sandy Jacobs, vice-mayor, continued to express her support of the project, and said she will be voting for it next week.
"We've been looking for solutions to North Vine for a long time," Jacobs noted, "but this is the best design - in my opinion - that has been brought forward.
"I hate like heck that we're paying more for it but I strongly believe that it's the right thing to do. Important in my decision is that we'll do this with no increase in the (city) sales tax."
Although he also supports the project, Shaun Musil, mayor, agreed that it is "completely unacceptable to be this much over." Musil also emphasized he disagrees with a portion of the design that extends 37th Street west from Vine to Skyline.
Musil told Toby Dougherty, city manager, residents are still suggesting improving only the 32nd and 33rd Street intersections, which would cost significantly less. The smaller project is something the city has talked about at least since the late 1990s.
"Why is that not in Hays' best interest?" Musil asked Dougherty.
"If you did that without any improvements further north in the corridor, you're creating more problems further up in the corridor," Dougherty explained.
"Right now you have significant congestion points at 35th and 37th Streets with a lot of left-hand turning movements coming out of that.
"You're not making the (former) Ambassador Hotel more viable. You're actually making the properties on the east side of Vine less viable because you're creating more congestion and accident points there.
"If we change the scope of the project that significantly, we'll probably lose the BUILD grant monies," Dougherty concluded.
Hays received a $6 million federal BUILD grant in Dec. 2018 to cover a portion of the project, which was estimated at a total cost of $9.3 million. The remainder of the funding will come from an increase in the Transient Guest Tax that was implemented in 2018.
"I believe every one of us up here is looking at this as seriously as humanly possible," said Mason Ruder, commissioner.
"I think we're all going to make the decision we believe is best for the city. We truly believe it's either good or bad for our community."
(Video and photos courtesy of Nex-Tech)