By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
The City of Elkhorn Common Council voted in favor of a motion at last week’s meeting to award a three-year contract to J&M Displays, Inc., to provide fireworks displays for the city at a cost of $10,000 each year.
The Finance and Judicial Committee had voted in favor earlier this year of sending the city’s firework displays contract out for bid to J&M Displays, who the city selected last year, and Bartolotta Fireworks, a company the city had worked with in previous years.
Alderman Scott McClory said requests were sent out to both companies, however, nothing was submitted from Bartolotta Fireworks. McClory said officials discussed it internally and the committee felt contracting with J&M Displays was the best option.
McClory said the committee recommended a three-year contract with the fireworks display company at a cost of $10,000 each year. He said the committee also recommended paying 70 days ahead of time, which would give the city an additional bonus of another 8 percent of product in addition to the 15 percent extra it’s receiving for contracting with the company for three years.
The committee also discussed what the date for this year’s fireworks display would be this year, McClory said, as concerns had been brought forth that the Friday before the holiday is still in June. He said the fireworks display company’s availability is for June 30, the Friday before July 4, and in line with what the city has done in past years, the committee voted in favor of June 30.
Although it is not technically in July, McClory said it is the last Friday leading into the holiday weekend. When the committee previously discussed the display at a prior meeting, committee members noted that although that Friday is in June, there are a lot of families who do travel out of the area for the holiday, and holding it on the previous Friday would provide them the opportunity to enjoy the display before leaving for the holiday weekend.
A motion to approve the agreement with J&M Displays was approved unanimously by the Council.
Parking on West Jefferson
The City of Elkhorn Common Council also voted in favor of limiting parking in the 100 block of West Jefferson Street at its meeting Monday night, based on a recommendation from the City of Elkhorn Public Safety Committee.
According to Alderman Bruce Lechner, chairman of the committee, concerns over narrowness along the 100 block in comparison to other collector streets in the city were brought forth to City of Elkhorn Police Chief Joel Christensen.
Lechner said city staff measured the 10 and 100 blocks of the street. Both are about the same size, but Lechner said the 10 block has no parking along the one side of the street. As such, Lechner said it was the committee’s recommendation the city prohibit parking along the south side of the 100 block of West Jefferson Street. A motion to approve was passed unanimously by the full council.
Other business
In other business:
– The Council approved contracts for several other projects, namely the long awaited South Jackson Street project and repainting two of the city’s elevated storage tanks.
McClory said bid results had come in for the South Jackson Street project, a project “in dire need” that has been put off for far too long.
“We’re finally at a point now to get this taken care of,” he said.
McClory said the city’s Finance and Judicial committee, of which he is chairman, recommended the project be awarded to Townsend Construction Inc., with the contract totaling $760,938.77. He said the final cost will likely differ from that amount slightly, as it’s the contractor’s cost to complete the project, with the industry standard being a variance of about 5 percent.
– A motion to approve the Jackson Street project was approved unanimously;
McClory said two of the city’s storage tanks need to be repainted, one at the fairgrounds and the other near Holton Manor. He said the city sent the project out for bids and the vendor recommended by the Finance and Judicial Committee is MK Painting out of Michigan, whose quote came in at $596,000.
McClory said the city had previously budgeted $800,000 for the repainting of the two tanks, a decision made after consulting with Baxter & Woodman, an engineering firm the city has worked with on its water system previously.
– A motion to award the contract was approved unanimously by the Council. The tank at the fairgrounds is set to be repainted this year, with the tank near Holton Manor slated for 2018;
The Council also voted unanimously in favor of a proposal to award the city’s website revamp to aHa! Consulting. McClory said requests for proposals were sent out to eight companies, with proposals received from several vendors.
He said the cost presented by the consulting company totaled $15,500 in the first year to build the city a brand-new website, with an additional $3,500 in the following years to cover the cost of website maintenance. The $3,500 fee would not be paid in the first year.
