Committee awards $3.2 million alley and sidewalk contract after debate over resident assessments

The Administration & Public Works Committee voted 3-1 to award a $3,203,481.10 contract to Alliance Contractors for the 2025 Alley and Sidewalk Improvements (Bid 25-26), after members debated whether bundling privately assessed alleys with larger city projects raised costs for individual homeowners.

Council Member Claire Kelly, who chaired the meeting in place of the absent committee chair, announced the motion and called for discussion before the committee approved the award. Public commenter Mary Rosinski raised concerns that the bid bundle included alleys in North Evanston and that residents paying 50/50 assessments could face higher per-household costs if higher-priced line items were applied to privately assessed portions of the work. "If I were having my alley redone, I'd want probably to analyze the difference between the 3 bids and maybe go with the mid bid," Rosinski said during public comment.

The nut of the committee's debate was whether combining special-assessment alley work with larger city sidewalk and pedestrian improvements produces net savings through economies of scale or instead shifts higher per-unit costs onto residents who pay their share directly. Council Member Davis, whose ward contains several of the alleys in the package, moved to direct staff to separate the special-assessment alley work and solicit separate bids for those pieces. That motion was seconded but later withdrawn by Davis.

City engineering staff said the larger combined project is likely to produce lower unit prices because a single contractor can procure materials, notably concrete, at better rates for a larger volume of work. "Typically, we would get more competitive pricing the larger the contract we do," Assistant City Engineer Chris Suess told the committee. Senior Project Manager Bridget Nash said the actual amount charged to any homeowner on a special-assessment alley is capped during the public hearing process: "We follow a special assessment process. And at the public hearing, we provide the maximum amount that any homeowner on that alley will be charged for the project. And the city has to cover any cost over that amount." Nash added that those per-property assessment amounts vary by alley.

Committee members pressed staff on line-item differences between bidders for specific alley segments. Council Member Kelly noted several alley line items where the chosen contractor's price for privately assessed alleys was higher than other bidders' offers, and said that difference could mean several thousand dollars more per homeowner in some cases. City staff acknowledged that, while bundling often reduces per-unit cost, it is impossible to know exactly how each contractor would have bid if the alleys were advertised separately. Suess told the committee that unit costs have risen in recent years: staff cited an engineer's estimate near 2021 of roughly $202 per square yard and said current alley-improvement unit costs are "close to $400 if not more."

After discussion, Council Member Davis withdrew her motion to split the bid. The committee then voted to approve the contract award to Alliance Contractors, with Council Members Harris, Nussbaum and Davis voting in favor and Council Member Kelly opposed. "Okay, with 3 voting in favor and 1 opposed, that passes," Kelly announced after the roll call.

The vote means Alliance Contractors will be awarded the construction contract; special assessments and the public-hearing caps remain in place and staff said the city will cover any costs above the maximum assessment amount set at the public hearing. The committee did not adopt any new procurement policy changes during the meeting.

The committee also heard Mary Rosinski ask whether the alley requests were resident-initiated and how the city prioritizes alleys for the special-assessment list; staff did not provide immediate data on how many resident-initiated requests remain in the queue during the meeting. Rosinski also asked for a year-to-date total for slip-and-fall payouts over the last three to five years; that figure was not provided at the meeting.