Council tables traffic‑signal maintenance bid after low‑bid irregularities

At its Feb. 17 work session, the Public Works committee presented ten contract recommendations — including tree maintenance ($9,715), landscaping ($48,930), rain‑garden maintenance ($20,336) and street sign replacement ($87,004.58) — and asked council to place them on the consent agenda. One high‑price, high‑profile item, the 2026 traffic‑signal maintenance contract, was pulled for further review after staff found the low bidder omitted multiple required line items.

Public Works and procurement staff explained that the lowest bid from Signal Service omitted several line items (operators, backhoe, bucket‑truck line items), rendering the submission non‑responsive. Staff recommended awarding the contract to the next responsive bidder, Kuharchuk (Kucharchek) Construction Inc., but several council members suggested rejecting the bids and rebidding to ensure competitive, complete proposals. The chair proposed moving the traffic‑signal item to discussion rather than placing it on consent so staff could confer with the committee and solicitor and return with a clarified recommendation.

Council voted to discuss the traffic‑signal contract at the next meeting rather than approve it on consent; the remaining Public Works items were moved to consent.

What to watch: the contract will return to council with clarified bid evaluations and a staff recommendation whether to (a) award to the next responsive bidder or (b) rebid the project.