Commission to consider awarding CDBG water hook‑up contract; low bidder is Gillespie Contracting, Commission to authorize grant amendments

Chilton County's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) water hookup project for County Roads 16 and 26 drew a low bid from Gillespie Contracting of Jasper, the county's grant writer said, and commissioners were asked to authorize the contract award, grant‑fund invoice payment and related budget reallocation at the regular meeting.

Kara Stallman, the county's grant writer, said bids were opened May 28 and the low bidder was Gillespie Contracting, which will connect households to an existing water main installed by the water authority. "It's gonna hook from the water line to each household by a plumber," Stallman said, describing the contractor's work as making the individual household hookups.

Stallman said the project is 100% grant‑funded and that no county general fund dollars would be required to cover the work. She asked the Commission to authorize three items at the upcoming meeting: (1) award the construction contract to the low bidder, (2) authorize payment of a grant‑related invoice paid from grant funds, and (3) authorize the chairman to sign necessary award and amendment documents so funds can move from a construction bucket to a household hookup bucket within the grant.

Stallman told commissioners that 22 households had signed up for hookups so far while the original grant application listed 36 potential connections; she said project staff will prioritize several households whose wells have gone dry and intend to hold a preconstruction meeting after the award. "There's a couple people down there that's wells have gone dry. So we're gonna make them the priority, and we're gonna tell the contractor to go out immediately and run their lines so those people have clean water as soon as possible," Stallman said.

Stallman also said the bids came in under the expected budget, but that the county must execute a grant amendment to reallocate funds from the main‑line construction category to the household hookup category. She asked commissioners to place the award and associated documents on the coming meeting's consent agenda.

No formal award was made at the work session; Stallman said the contract award and grant amendment will be presented for Commission action at the regular meeting. Commissioners asked staff to invite any commissioner who wants to attend the preconstruction meeting to be notified.

Background: The project will use federal CDBG funds to pay contractor costs and household hookup expenses for qualifying residents. Stallman said the county had room to shuffle grant funds between budget categories without using county tax dollars. The county has previously coordinated with the water authority to extend main water lines; this project installs the individual household connections.

Next steps: Commissioners were asked to approve the contract award, invoice payment and authorization for the chairman to sign grant documents at the next meeting so construction can proceed as soon as possible.