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Four Oaks board tentatively awards downtown streetscape contract to Fred Smith Co.
Summary
At a Sept. 24, 2024 special meeting the Town of Four Oaks Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to accept a tentative award to Fred Smith Co. for the downtown streetscape project, authorizing the mayor to execute construction contracts after reducing the project scope to fit available grant funding.
The Town of Four Oaks Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Sept. 24, 2024, to accept a Recommendation of Tentative Award to Fred Smith Co. for the downtown streetscape project and authorized Mayor Vic Medlin to execute construction contracts as needed.
Glen Fleming of WithersRavenel opened the discussion on project funding and said the town intends to cover costs with three grants: a Community Development Block Grant of around $900,000; a North Carolina Capital Infrastructure Fund grant of about $1.5 million; and a HUD Economic Development Community Project Grant of roughly $3 million. Fleming said the project was advertised for bids three times — in late January, again in May, and with bids opened June 12 — and that the first two advertisements produced no bids.
Fleming and representatives from Fred Smith Co. described the single responsive bid. He said the original bid from Fred Smith Co. was approximately $4.8 million and, with several additives, the total bid package reached about $8.7 million, significantly above the budget. Fleming said town staff and the contractor worked together on scope reductions; Fleming identified the "base bid central" area as Main Street from the railroad tracks to Wellons and noted that permit costs, including those for dry utilities, had pushed the base-bid estimate to about $5.6 million before further reductions.
Faced with those figures, Commissioner Mike Hines moved to accept the Recommendation of Tentative Award to Fred Smith Co. for approximately $3.3 million and to authorize Mayor Vic Medlin to sign construction contracts as needed. Commissioner Michael Bradley seconded the motion; the record shows the vote was unanimous and the motion passed.
Mayor Vic Medlin said he will schedule a question-and-answer meeting with downtown business owners to review the project details. With no further business, the board adjourned at 5:30 p.m.
The board did not record additional details about contract terms, specific scope elements removed during reductions, or a construction schedule; those items were not specified in the meeting minutes.
