After rising costs, village pushing sidewalk improvements to next year
By Dave Fidlin
CORRESPONDENT
After months of review and, at times, heated discussion, Village of East Troy officials have decided to roll the sidewalk improvements slated for this year into next year’s capital budget in the hopes of having a more cost-effective project in the long run.
The Village Board on July 2 moved forward on a plan to rebid the sidewalk improvements in January, at a time when fewer municipalities are clamoring for contractors to submit quotes.
Lynch and Associates, the firm hired to do engineering work in East Troy, had gone out to bid on this year’s sidewalk improvements in June. One bidder offered up a quote, and it was 20 percent more than initial cost projections.
“This is likely due to time of year, and the number of projects currently going on in our area,” Public Works Director Jason Equitz wrote in a memo
The revelation came on the heels of a report from Lynch staffers in May that the cost of engineering this year’s planned sidewalk improvements came in at $20,000 more than the original $30,000 estimate.
At this point in the season, Equitz said he believes it would be prudent to roll 2018’s sidewalk improvements into areas designated for next year’s capital plan for an overall larger project.
“After discussing the situation with Engineer (Sarah) Nunn, we feel at this point the best option is to design the 2019 work now and bid it as one large project in January,” Equitz wrote in the memo.
Village officials overall were supportive of the plans Equitz and Nunn laid out, so long as the cost overruns that were commonplace this year do not crop up again in 2019.
“As long as we’ve got a game plan, to prevent this from happening again, I think we’ll be in a much better spot,” Trustee Matt Johnson said.
