April 15, 2015

The Enterprise City Council met in special session on Wednesday, April 15 at 5:30 p.m. as scheduled at the regular meeting.

Those present were Mayor Steve Lear; Councilors Laura Miller, Dave Elliott, Stacey Karvoski, Bill Coffin, Jenni Word; City Attorney Roland Johnson, Staff Michele Young and Ronnie Neil.

Guests: Troy Baker of Anderson Perry and Stephanie O'Brian

Roland reviewed with the City Council the high points of the Contract for the Water Improvement Project. Items that he wanted to discuss consisted of the work in the highway and the Archeological part.

Discussion on work to be performed in the highway:

Ronnie stated that Troy and himself have determined that they can tie in to the existing line on Arthur Street and run it west to Holmes Street. The city crew can later make the connection and we will have a circulation that way.

The fire hydrant by the Bank of Eastern Oregon can still be done. The River street crossing is behind the sidewalk. The other three we will have to do without. Troy stated that we are not giving up very much, to meet the ODOT deadline

Councilor Miller asked if this will affect our fire hydrant. Ronnie stated we are replacing 104 fire hydrants. Dave Elliott appreciated their effort to accomplish a different method in getting this done. It takes extra effort and thought and he appreciates them doing that.

Archaeological:

Stephanie O'Brien is the Archaeologist at Anderson Perry. Last year they did some diggings, There is a Historic Site dated from 1899-1920 near the dump site based on the finds. There is a decision to be made whether it is eligible at a historic site. To be protected it has to meet certain criteria, they are trying to prove that this is not a significant site.

Steve asked Stephanie if she will be doing the monitoring, she stated potentially. That is being worked out now. Roland asked how long this will take, Stephanie feels it will be 2-4 weeks. If it becomes a significant site it could take 2 months. Councilor Elliott stated his mothers grandparents homesteaded that area and he asked if it was just household debris. Stephanie showed the council the maps that show the area of the dig which is the old dump site.

Roland asked if we can still go out for bid before the consultation issues are resolved. Troy stated yes. Roland stated that we would like to have a provision added regarding the monitoring. Roland feels we need to move forward with the bid.   Mayor Lear asked what happens if it is not resolved by the time is bid is awarded, Roland stated we would have to add a change order. Troy stated that if it looks like it is going to be a problem near the opening date we can just issue an addendum and postpone the bid opening.

Stephanie is hoping to get the tribe monitoring dealt with by the time the bid is awarded.

They could require more digging but it is doubtful that will happen.

Stephanie stated that what dictates a historic site is findings that are older than 50 years old. They reported on surface finds. Councilor Elliott stated that there is no way of getting around this on this site because of it being the old dump site. Stephanie stated the most they may require is to go back out and do some more digging.

Roland feels we should have a motion to proceed with bid. Councilor Elliott made and Councilor Coffin seconded the motion to proceed with the advertisement for bid. Motion passed unanimously.

Councilor Elliott made a motion to set aside the 4 hydrants that were planned in the Highway right of way. We will proceed with the alternate route on Arthur street that will connect on Holmes Street which the public works dept. will complete at a later date. Councilor Karvoski seconded the motion which passed unanimously.

Roland then proceeded to review the key parts of the contract with the City Council, this way when you are asked a question from the public you can accurately answer their question.

The contract document is 500 pages long and very complicated.

Roland explained the contracting process so that council can understand how the interests of the city are being protected. We are subject to numerous state laws and federal requirements. We also like to build into the contract documents desirable contractual provisions from a contracting stand.

The contract document includes the Advertisement for bid which describes the project appears in the newspaper. It is published in the Daily Journal of Commerce and the local paper.

The contract Includes information for the bidder, a lengthy document, then we have General Conditions and a supplement of general conditions, we amend the general conditions in a number of conditions to comply with requirements, we have an agreement form by the winner of the bid.

There are the specifications and plans, the object to them is to describe in detail the project.

We advertise the bid and the perspective bidders get a bidders packet online.

When a bid is submitted they agree to comply with our contract documents. We open the bids and examine them and follow a protocol to award to the lowest responsible bidder.

We go through a process to determine that. Then we do an award of contract. We have to give a notice of intent, they then have a legal opportunity to protest within a 7 day period. We are required to have performance and payment bonds. If the contractor doesn’t get it finished we can go back on the performance bond to complete the project. The payment bond will make sure the suppliers are paid if any problems arise from that. We require certain liability coverage.

We send out the agreement, performance bond, required insurance and numerous certifications, We get all that back, sign the agreement and issue a notice of award. The contractor can proceed with work.

Roland stated that we get good cost estimates from Anderson Perry to protect us from cost overruns. They have done a lot of this work and they base their estimates on prior bids. There will be a budget for the construction, there will be a contingency built in the budget. There is a base bid with 5 additive pieces that may or may not be awarded. When the bids come in we will award the base bid and which additives can be awarded.

We will award the base and what ever additional additives we can. If we have a train wreck and they come in higher we deny the bids and go back. Troy Baker stated that the basis of the award is the Base Bid. You may have a contractor that is low on the base bid and higher in the additives. They may gamble on submitting a base bid that is low.

Once we do that, we award a contract that is within our budget, we do not award a contract that is more than our budget. We sign up on our contract, we are protected by the performance bond, then we have some circumstances that can require an adjustment in price during the course of the project.  

We have elaborate provisions to assure that we know right a way that something has occurred before the work is performed.

We are required to pay Davis Bacon wages. State law requires we make progress payments. There is a 5% retainage.   State law mandates a number of requirements. They are included in the contract documents. Michele is under pressure to get a draw paid out very quickly.

We have a full time inspector, if that inspector does his job, we will know that we do not have a pipe buried that was not bedded.   Larry Estes will be the project representative.

If there is a dispute, we talk about improper work. Then the engineer would make a determination. We modified the general conditions to put in a independent engineer if there is a dispute, Rod McKee is that person and is the public works director for the City of Union.

We did have a dispute on the wastewater project, they put in a request for a large sum at the end of the project. We settled the claim on what we thought was appropriate, it was a very useful procedure.

Councilor Karvoski asked if the Observer and Monitor are covered by the project, Michele stated yes. Michele stated that for those that did not know the Wastewater Project ended up under budget, we not only had money to turn back in but were able to build a shop to store additional equipment for the Treatment Plan operations.

After final discussion the meeting was adjourn.

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                                                                                    Steven D. Lear, Mayor

ATTEST:

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Michele R. Young, City Admin./Recorder