Council discusses sale of nuisance property, receives bid

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council discussed the sale of a vacant lot at 312 15th Ave. during Wednesday’s planning session, and opened a sealed bid for the property, which was formerly a nuisance property acquired by the city.

“A few weeks ago I had someone reach out to the city and inquire about possibly purchasing the now vacant lot,” Charles City Administrator Steve Diers told the council. “We instructed the potential bidder to submit at a time to be determined.”

The property once held a duplex that has since been torn down by the city. Diers said that as he and the potential bidder were discussing dates, another interested bidder called the city to ask about interest in bidding as well. The council established that sealed bids would be opened Dec. 15 — the date of the meeting.

“We did tell both bidders that there was another party interested in possibly providing a bid,” Diers said.

Ultimately, the city received just one bid by the deadline, which Diers opened at the meeting. The bid was for $1,300.

Diers said that the council would have to decide at Monday’s regular meeting it wants to accept that bid. The item will be on the agenda Monday. A bid minimum at $1,500 was requested last April when the council first received verbal interest in the property.

“Ultimately, it would be a way to get that property off our hands, and it could be used for something else,” Diers said.

Diers said the council needed to consider whether they’d rather the property be used for a new building or be occupied by the adjacent property owner who submitted the bid.

In other business on Wednesday, the council discussed the acceptance of two recently-completed projects — the 2020 Southwest Development Park Water Quality Initiative and the Grove St./Illinois St. Intersection Improvement Project.

City Engineer John Fallis told the council that the work on the drainage project was complete. Farm Tile Pro was the general contractor, and the contract was awarded on Oct 19, 2020.

The finished project consists of two detention basins. A detention pond on the south side of Rove Street is a “wet pond” that will allow particles in the water to settle out before being discharged downstream using a controlled release structure. The existing detention basin on the north side of Rove Avenue was improved to control the release of storm water to help alleviate flooding issues.

The existing drainage swales around the Winnebago and Trelleborg facilities were regraded to improve the storm water conveyance. A new reinforced concrete box culvert was placed under 11th Street to replace a culvert pipe. Six-inch drain tile was also placed in the bottom of the ditch to help keep the ditch bottom dry and assist with future ditch maintenance.

The project was completed for at a total cost of $363,265.50 which is more than the original bid amount of $331,974.50. The additional cost was due to extra work to move a 12-inch water main for $28,800. This was discussed and approved at the June 21 meeting. There was also an additional $10,700 cost for exposing and working around buried utility lines which were not shown on the plans. There was also a decrease of $8,200 due to changes which resulted in fewer quantities used than what was included in the original bid quantities.

The council will vote on acceptance of the project at Monday’s meeting.

Heartland Asphalt was the general contractor for the Grove Street Illinois Street Intersection Improvement Project. The project included removing existing pavement and storm sewer at the intersection, placing new storm sewer and additional intakes to collect stormwater runoff to direct it to Sherman Creek, reconstructed the riprap embankment adjacent to Sherman Creek, removed existing damaged guardrail and replaced with new guard rail, replaced the pavement with new grades to direct the storm water runoff to the storm sewer intakes.

The project was completed for at a total cost of $150,408.94, which is $15,762.69 above the original contract amount of $134,646.25. The additional costs consisted of the following: $7,159.00 for modifications to the proposed storm sewer system due to conflicts with existing utilities, $3,367.10 for repairs to a sanitary sewer main which lost its support when the new storm sewer was placed under the sanitary sewer, $3,814.59 for increased measured quantities above the estimated bid quantities, and $1,422.00 for additional work items.

This project was prompted when Paul Rottinghaus acquired and started improvements at the former Sherman Nursery site. At the time of the bid award and approval of the contract and bonds, it was determined that Rottinghaus would be responsible for the pavement and improvements on his property and the City would pay for the improvements within the public right-of-way.

The final cost share will be $125,991.67 for the city and $24,417.27 for Rottinghaus, should the project be accepted at Monday’s meeting.

The council also heard an update on Charles City Watershed activities from coordinator Doug Johnson on Wednesday. Johnson told the council that he would like to see the council develop incentives for private and corporate properties to put in more infiltration-based storm management practices.

Johnson also talked about an urban transportation grant program which may be of interest to Charles City residents. He said he was looking for additional local support for the program.