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Evansville board approves bundle of contract renewals, shelter and benefit agreements
Summary
The Board of Public Works approved a series of 2025 benefit renewals, dozens of social-service and shelter contracts funded by ESG/CDBG, and several infrastructure contract amendments and utility agreements. The board also opened bids for METS bus shelter work and awarded a fire station renovation contract.
The Evansville Board of Public Works on Dec. 5 approved a package of contracts and renewals covering employee benefits, shelter and homelessness services, and multiple public-works contracts.
The board approved a month-to-month agreement with Charter Communications to provide 'red-phone' secondary lines at 13 fire stations to satisfy accreditation requirements. City staff said AT&T’s Centric service is being discontinued; the contract was described as $29.99 per line plus taxes, totaling $389.87 per month for 13 lines. "It's a hotline," said Mr. Lutz, explaining the phones provide a secondary direct line for central dispatch to contact stations.
On employee benefits, the board approved 2025 renewals including an FSA administration fee (roughly $4.90 per participating employee per month, with staff estimating about 150 participants), stop-loss and organ transplant coverage administered by Key Benefit Administrators Inc., and dental-plan arrangements with Health Resources Inc. doing business as Paramount Dental. Staff cited an $800,000 figure for dental-plan claims and an $80,000 figure for dental administrative fees, and $700,000 for health-plan administrative fees; all items were moved and approved.
The board also approved a large set of Department of Metropolitan Development contracts and ESG/CDBG allocations for local shelter and homelessness services. Approved agreements included (amounts as stated in the record): Evansville Rescue Mission day shelter ($10,000); Ozanam Shelter Corp. ($15,963); United Caring Shelters (Ruth House, $10,000; day shelter, $21,000); Echo Housing Corporation (House of Bread and Pea, $16,000; Lucas Place, $50,000; Family Enrichment Center, $30,000; Promise Zone consulting $25,000 and operating costs $40,000); Aurora Inc. (voucher program operations $15,000; street outreach/crisis intervention $13,720; rapid rehousing $100,749; coordinated entry/assessment $16,000); YWCA residential services $21,000; and Albion Fellows Bacon Center domestic-violence shelter $20,000. A DMD representative noted many of the items derive from finance ordinance "f 20 24 0 6," which staff said passed June 11, 2024.
On capital and public-works items, the board approved an amendment with American StructurePoint that raises the Walnut Street Phase 3 professional-services contract from $1,100,000 to $1,550,000 (an increase of $450,000). The board also approved CenterPoint Energy contracts for streetlight relocations and signal power drops related to the Lloyd Expressway and Walnut Street reconstruction: an estimated $413,883.19 for Stockwell Road/Lloyd Expressway streetlight relocation; $15,697.61 to power five new Walnut Street signal locations; and $625,431.48 for Lloyd Expressway relocations from Red Bank Road to Ingle Street. Engineers told the board the CenterPoint Streetlight estimates are billed on actuals and that the city is funding Lloyd Expressway relocations from its streetlight account.
The board took multiple small public-works quotes under advisement for Project 24-021 (Mount Vernon and Riggs Avenue pipe joint repair), with four bids recorded: Blankenberger Brothers ($33,800), Dye Brothers Construction ($45,410), Sam Trucking ($45,620), and Coburstein Trucking ($72,500).
Other approved items included a change-order time extension (no cost) for the East Side drainage project to Nov. 30, 2025, and a late-submitted $100,000 contract with Hayford for architecture/engineering and bidding services for METS facility renovations.
Votes were uniformly voice approvals recorded as "Aye" on the consent-style items. The board also approved hiring a grant writer for federal funding work, and it moved to approve bills and payroll before adjourning at 1:56 p.m.
Why it matters: The approvals lock in funding and vendor relationships for the coming year across public-safety communications, employee benefits, homelessness services and multiple street and signal projects that will affect contractors and city operations in 2025.
What’s next: Many items (procurement quotes and METS shelter bids) were taken under advisement, and several engineering contracts were presented as estimates to be billed on actuals; those items will move to procurement and project implementation phases as bids are reviewed and work is scheduled.
