Charles City Council approves $2.4M Main Street Rehabilitation contract

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council approved the final plans and contract for the 2024 Main Street Rehabilitation Project during its regular meeting on Monday, April 15.

Preliminary plans for the project were approved in December and have remained relatively consistent as the project went out for bidding.

“Nothing’s really changed since the first time we looked at these,” said council member DeLaine Freeseman.

As reported during last Wednesday’s workshop, two bids were submitted for the project, with Heartland Asphalt submitting the low bid of $2,484,864,57, just $11K less than the second bidder.

Both bids are above the $2.1 million engineer’s estimate, but once approved the city and contractor can begin discussion on potential cost reductions.

“We do have some ideas in mind and the contractor might also have some,” said City Engineer-in-Training Brian Sullivan.

The council also approved an amendment to the city’s agreement with engineering firm Veenstra and Kimm, contracting to provide engineering services during the project’s construction with a fee not to exceed $206,600.

In a related matter, the council approved the first and only pay request from Zimmermans Digging and Demolition, who brought down the building at 808 Main Street at a cost of $11,250.

“They actually got it done very quickly,” said Sullivan.

In other business, Mayor Dean Andrews read a proclamation recognizing Youth Week. Representing the Charles City Elks Lodge, Steve Kincannon was present at the meeting to ask that May 5-11 be declared as Youth Week as the Elks lodge will be hosting a youth banquet for the community’s young people on May 5.

Also at the meeting, Emily Knecht spoke to the council about a street closure request for the upcoming IC 5K run. Scheduled for May 4, the Immaculate Conception PTO is asking that St. Mary’s Street and Kelly Street around the school be closed from 7 a.m. to noon to facilitate the fundraiser run. The council approved the street closure.

The council also approved an update to the ordinance that will add provisions to mandate backflow prevention devices in certain city buildings.

While council member Keith Starr has previously expressed disapproval for the proposal, citing his concern that the cost to businesses and cost of enforcement may outweigh the benefit, he acknowledged that it is a DNR recommended policy and made the motion to approve the ordinance.

“This is required by the state effectively, so I would move,” said Starr.

The council likewise approved a contract with AquaResource, which will provide the software to manage records of inspections, maintenance and installations of the backflow systems in the city.

In other water business, the city approved an adjustment to the bulk water rates. With the bulk water station soon utilizing a self-service payment system, the city is eliminating the service charge that was previously used for hooking up a meter and going to a flat rate of $14 per 1,000 gallons.

Finally, the council discussed a request for funding from the Floyd County Medical Center to go toward ambulance service for the new fiscal year.

FCMC provided $100,000 last year to subsidize the cost of a short-term contract with AMR to provide ambulance service while the city and county work towards developing its own service.

While the joint ambulance commission has made progress, it is all but certain that the city/county will need to utilize AMR for a second year before a new ambulance service is operational.

The county, acting on behalf of both parties, has already made a request to FCMC’s board to offer the same subsidy, factoring in a 3% increase. The hospital Board of Trustees approved that request at its meeting Monday evening (See related story).

The council members discussed if it was even their place to make such a request or if such an action should be taken by the ambulance commission.

“To me, we kind of got the cart a little bit ahead of the horse,” said council member Patrick Lumley.

The council did ultimately approve a request for funding, noting that it was ultimately up to the FCMC board to decide what, if anything, should be contributed.

“If they choose to give more or less, that would be appropriate,” said Starr.