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District to seek written amendment after contractor proposes flat-rate ‘locates’ service, GIS mapping and quarterly reporting
Summary
Board members expressed support for a contractor proposal to bundle Indiana 811 locates into a flat monthly fee (proposed: Granger $4,000; Wyatt $750; Otten $900), add GIS mapping, and provide quarterly reports; the board asked for a revised written amendment before formal approval.
A local utility board discussed on record a contractor proposal to take over and price Indiana 811 locate services on a flat-fee basis and to add GIS mapping and quarterly reporting to the district’s operations contract. The board did not vote on contract language but asked the contractor to submit a revised, written amendment for consideration.
The contractor presenting the plan (identified in the transcript as Speaker 7) said his firm has two full-time locators operating in the district area and recommended building locate services into a fixed monthly rate to reduce administrative burden and guard against large monthly invoicing spikes when major projects generate many locate requests. He presented the proposed monthly fees by subdistrict: Granger $4,000, Wyatt $750 and Otten $900, and said the company would also locate power as required and provide usage reports.
Speaker 7 told the board his team analyzed three years of locate-ticket volume to set pricing and offered quarterly reporting for the district and an annual reconciliation (true-up) option if the board wanted actuals reconciled against the flat fee. He shared annual locate counts in the meeting: 2022 — 1,395 locates; 2023 — 1,257 locates; 2024 year-to-date totals were to be provided for the most recent months.
Board members voiced support for the flat-rate approach while asking for clear documentation of volumes and an explicit reporting cadence suitable for auditing by the State Board of Accounts. One member expressed a preference for a true-up at year end to avoid over- or under-payment, and the contractor agreed that a reconciliation could be added though he cautioned it increases accounting overhead.
The board asked the contractor to revise the proposal to include: the promised quarterly reports, GIS mapping commitments, and a written amendment to the current operations contract. The contractor agreed to provide 2022, 2023 and updated 2024 locate totals and to return a written amendment for board review. The board signaled preliminary comfort with the approach but deferred formal approval until it reviews the written amendment.
The meeting record shows the board previously approved routine claims and deferred an August financial report until September; no formal contract amendment vote occurred at this meeting.
Next steps: the contractor will submit a revised written amendment including the agreed reporting language and mapping scope; the board will review the amendment and consider formal approval at a later meeting.
