Supervisors approve $29,800 Watersmith Engineering contract for county sidewalk and parking replacements

The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors voted Feb. 3 to accept a $29,800 proposal from Watersmith Engineering to produce design and construction-phase services for scheduled sidewalk and parking-lot replacements at county properties.

The contract covers two parking lots that serve the administration building and the employee lot at the jail, plus sidewalk segments on Fourth Street and Walnut Street near the courthouse and jail, county staff said. The move follows a year-old round of contractor bids that came back with a wide range: roughly $178,000 on the low end and about $424,000 on the high end.

"We reached out to Brad Roth with Watersmith Engineering to make sure that we had good design specs when we went out to bid," said the county planning and zoning administrator. The consultant's scope will include topographic and utility surveys, ADA-compliant ramps and crossings, a probable-cost opinion, bid assistance and construction observation.

Board members pushed staff to explain why the county should pay $29,800 for engineering services. County staff and other supervisors said the engineering scope is intended to produce consistent material and testing specifications, verify subsurface and curb conditions, ensure ADA compliance and avoid future rework.

"A single ADA violation is going to cost more than paying the engineer," one supervisor said during the discussion, noting the risks of accepting a low, under-specified bid.

County staff also reported positive early coordination with the City of Muscatine on curb and curb-cut work adjacent to Fourth Street; the city indicated it may pay to replace curbing while the county contracts for the sidewalk to be replaced. Staff flagged that some parking-lot work may need to be coordinated with other pending building projects to avoid redoing newly poured surfaces.

The board voted to approve the Watersmith proposal on a motion by Supervisor Jeff and a second from Supervisor Scott. The motion passed unanimously.

The county said Watersmith previously produced work for other county projects and that the professional design package is expected to draw a broader range of qualified, competitive bidders by providing explicit construction and material specifications. Construction bidding and any permit requirements will follow the design phase; permitting costs were listed in the proposal as "not anticipated" but could apply depending on final scope.

Separately, county staff noted ongoing building work on the administration building this week and said brief parking or access interruptions are expected while contractors complete scheduled roof and panel work.