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Smithfield council authorizes two drainage studies, approves senior-center kitchen upgrade bid
Summary
The Smithfield Town Council on March 3 authorized two grant-funded engineering studies — $28,510 for a Spencer Road watershed study and $16,860 for a Julian Street culvert evaluation — and approved a $78,693 bid for senior-center kitchen upgrades paid by a private grant.
The Smithfield Town Council authorized two engineering studies and approved a grant-funded bid for senior-center kitchen equipment at its March 3 meeting.
Town Engineer Josh Jelly told the council he secured grant funding to study two longstanding capital-improvement projects. He said Beta Group would perform a watershed/hydrologic analysis for the Spencer Road neighborhood for $28,510 under Master Price Agreement 584B, and AL1 Engineers would conduct a structural, hydraulic and feasibility inspection of the Julian Street culvert for $16,860. Jelly said both projects were added to the capital-improvement list after residents provided photo and video evidence of repeated flooding and that the grant funding must be spent before June 2027.
"These studies will tell us whether upstream work is affected and provide conceptual cost estimates if improvements are needed," Jelly said. He told the council he would send an updated payment and reporting schedule to members after the meeting.
Council members approved both authorizations without recorded opposition. The council requested the town manager provide an updated schedule in the agenda packet so members and the public could track deliverables and timelines.
Separately, staff recommended awarding the senior-center commercial-kitchen equipment upgrade bid to Johnson Lancaster Associates at a price of $78,693. The project is fully funded by the Harriet Grant Belaloo Foundation and carries no cost to the town, staff said. One councilor asked why the DPW director scored that vendor lower than others on the review rubric; staff replied that some rubric items could not be scored, which may explain the discrepancy. Council approved the award, subject to review by the town solicitor.
Taken together, the actions move forward planned infrastructure and facility upgrades that staff said respond to recent flooding and to a funded senior-center renovation. The studies will produce recommendations and rough cost estimates; no construction contracts were authorized at this meeting.
