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Ely awards Morley Avenue water upgrade contract after disqualifying low bidder for incomplete paperwork
Summary
After CDBG review found the apparent low bidder's packet incomplete, Ely City Council awarded the Morley Avenue Water Upgrade Project to the next responsive bidder and accepted the Water Department Asset Management Plan; council members noted the project will require local matching funding.
City Engineer B.J. Almberg told the council the apparent low bidder for the CDBG-funded Morley Avenue Water Upgrade Project failed to include required bid forms, a deficiency the grant administrator (CDBG) said made the bid nonresponsive. Almberg said, "the low bidder did not have all of the documents required by CDBG in their bid package," and the City therefore recommended awarding the contract to the next-lowest responsive bidder.
The Council voted unanimously to award the construction contract to O'Flaherty Plumbing as the lowest responsive bidder and accepted the Ely Municipal Water Department Asset Management Plan, a CAP-grant requirement.
Funding and timing: The project bid prices exceeded the grant amount; City Treasurer Janette Trask said some project funding will come from transferred community funds but cautioned the City cannot sustainably cover repeated cost overruns. "Financially, we can't keep going this far over on our projects and think that we can keep funding them going forward," Trask said.
Project scope and procurement: Almberg described minor value-engineering options, such as substituting short runs of PVC for ductile iron pipe away from pump locations, but said critical infrastructure near pumps will remain ductile iron. The Council approved the award and directed staff to coordinate funding and construction oversight.
Outcome and next steps: The contract award authorizes staff to finalize agreements with the responsive bidder and proceed with construction and grant reporting; staff will return with final funding closeout information when available.
