Construction of McQuillen sidewalks on Main Street to start next month

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

The Main Street sidewalk project has a completion date finalized.

It’s been four years since pedestrians could traverse Clark and Main streets in downtown Charles City alongside McQuillen Place. The sidewalks were taken out in 2014 as work was being done on the since-stalled development project, but they’ll be back soon.

The project’s final plans and bid were approved by the City Council at Monday’s regular meeting. It was one of a number of infrastructure items on the agenda.

Nolts Custom Concrete of Orchard was low bid at $49,878.05 and will take over the project within the next month.

City Engineer John Fallis said work could begin as early as September, with the constructing getting finished in early October a possibility. The deadline for completion is November 2.

“Nolts Custom Concrete has done work for us before. They have worked on many private projects in Charles City so we are very familiar with them,” said Fallis.

In addition to the six-inch thick Portland cement concrete sidewalks, the project will include decorative brick pavers and curb ramps. Street lights will also be put in place.

The storm sewer on Hulin Street between Johnson and Jackson Avenue is on the verge of collapse. Finals plans to replace that storm sewer were also approved on Monday. Popp Excavating was awarded that project with a bid of $34,200.

“It’s becoming a sinkhole and needs to be taken care of,” said Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Joerger, who filled in for Mayor Dean Andrews on Monday to preside over the council meeting.

The contract and bid of the Lime Residual Project was also approved. That project will clean out the north lagoon by Kamm Excavating for $82,000. A total of $75,000 is in the city budget, but the contract is a unit price and work can be adjusted to the number of tons of material that is removed to remain within the budget.

Last year the south lagoon was cleaned.

The Hildreth Street Reconstruction Project received an add–on cost after the Department of Natural Resources mandated separation requirements between sewer and water main pipes. This cost for this second change order on the project is $41,992.57 and was approved. The total cost of the entire project is $1,394,378.88.

Fallis said the city was able to contact the DNR and able to save approximately 20 percent from the original prepared change order. This was because reinforced concrete pipe with gaskets is able to be used instead of water–main pipe materials.

A mutual aid agreement between the Charles Fire Department, as well as Floyd and Colwell, was approved. Each department will automatically respond to an event, rather than wait for a call.

The installation of fence and security cameras for the water tower in town received bids recently. A bid of $11,891.91 was awarded and approved to Miller Fence and Flag. Iowa Surveillance Team will install the cameras at a cost of $3,334.98.

A change order to install an updated camera system at Morningside Apartments was also moved forward. The current contract, including the change order cost of $1,421.23, is $11,346.18. Hometown Security was the low quote at $9,924.95.

City Administrator Steve Diers said the the Request For Information that the Broadband Commission sent out is due this Thursday, August 9. He said there will be a meeting soon to discuss the commission’s next step once that information is received.

Diers also said that the city’s new public transit system could use a few more drivers. There are currently six drivers employed.