Council also approved equipment purchases for public works
By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
The City of Elkhorn Common Council voted 6-0 in favor Monday night of awarding the bid for the Getzen Street water main project to Woleske Construction out of Madison at a cost of more than $290,000.
In July, Utility Director John Murphy informed the council that the water main had its first break at about 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday night in June. Murphy said they fixed the break and proceeded to refill it with caution, but it broke again within minutes. That process continued for about an hour, as the deteriorating state of main kept causing additional breaks, according to Murphy.
He said those issues led the utility department isolating the unstable section of the main as much as possible, which they did by valving it off. That allowed water to still be delivered to residents but has been a temporary fix. The council voted in favor of a task order to replace the water main at that time.
Fast-forward to the Sept. 7 meeting, when City Administrator James Heilman said with the water main having basically self-destructed – and the only viable option being to replace it – the city sent out for bids. Woleske Construction returned the lowest bid at $293,614.
According to a memo included in the council packet from Ryan Christensen of Kapur, a total of four bids were received by Aug. 19 for the project. The other firms to respond included:
- The Wanasek Corp of Burlington at a cost of $293,983;
- Bradford Contractors of Burlington at $307,715, and;
- Fischer Excavating of Freeport, Illinois, at a cost of $359,679.
With Woleske Construction having the lowest bid – and the recommendation from both Kapur and city staff – a motion to award the bid to Woleske was passed unanimously at this week’s meeting.
In other business
In other business at the most recent council meeting, members voted in favor of approving the purchase of two pieces of equipment for city’s Public Works Department.
The approval is for the purchase of a 2021 Ventrac Tractor system and a 2021 Toro Groundsmaster Polar Trac.
According to a memo from Department of Public Works Operations Manager Matt Lindstrom, $90,000 had been budgeted for the replacement of a 2002 Kubota Tractor and $25,000 had been budgeted for the Toro Groundsmaster Polar Trac, bringing the total amount budgeted to $115,000.
Lindstrom’s memo noted that while the Toro machine is more than what was budgeted for at $28,128.34, the Ventrac Tractor system can be procured at a cost of $83,266.80. So, to purchase both items the total will be $111,395.14, slightly more than $3,600 less than what was previously budgeted.
A motion to approve the purchases was approved by the council by a 6-0 vote.
