By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
At a minimum, Hays City Commissioner Michael Berges believes the city should reject the two bids received for construction of the North Vine Street Improvement Corridor and rebid the project next fall.
"I can't reconcile accepting bids 30 percent higher than estimates without having a firmer understanding of where the surprise increases have come from," Berges said during last week's commission work session.
Berges is a financial analyst with Ameriprise and a new commissioner, elected in November and taking office in January.
Berges told Hays Post Wednesday his "stance is still pretty firm."
Hays city commissioners will vote Thursday on whether to accept the low bid for the North Vine Street Improvement Project, a bid that is $3.5 million higher than the engineer's estimate.
The $11.9 million dollar bid is from Smoky Hill Construction of Salina. The only other bid is even higher — $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.
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.
Braun told Hays Post on Wednesday his understanding is "if commissioners were to reject the bids and rebid the project in the fall, it would not impact the availability of the federal BUILD grant funds."
The city was awarded $6 million for the project in December 2018 to cover a portion of the project. The remainder of the funding will come from an increase in the transient guest tax.
Noting it is a very difficult decision, Vice-Mayor Sandy Jacobs and Mayor Shaun Musil both said at the work session they still support moving forward with the project.
"I've been in favor of improving Vine Street corridor both for safety and for economic sustainability as we look forward to the future of our community — the next 25 years and beyond," Jacobs said. "The current situation on the north Vine corridor is dangerous, particularly at 32nd and 33rd. We can all agree on that.
"The current configuration is detrimental to development. We see the former Ambassador Hotel property sitting vacant due, in no small part, to ingress and egress.
"The roundabout on the north side of the interstate will be very beneficial for business there," she continued. "The new convention center, along with existing restaurants and more to come, will benefit from that change. Exiting the Home Depot property will no longer require driving blocks out of the way in order to turn left onto Vine Street."
Commissioners Ron Mellick and Mason Ruder did not specifically express their intentions on how they will vote.