Council OKs payments for street improvement projects

The Sidney City Council approved numerous payment requests pertaining to the improvement of the city’s streets while also approving a new method for the bidding of public projects at its meeting Tuesday night.

The city council plans to improve Sidney’s streets in various stages. It approved a payment request of $28,763 from the city’s construction fund for the improvement of Pole Creek Crossing and Greenwood Road.

The council also extended an approval to build water and sewer lines to accommodate future projects. The approval is for one water extension district and three construction extension districts. The water district payment will be $1,891.50. The three street improvement districts – including Silverberg Drive, Jennifer Lane and Glover Business Park No. 2 – totaled $10,116.45.

A few years ago, Nebraska adopted a plan allowing for political subdivisions – or various parts of a city – to have alternatives to the traditional low bid public process.

A new method of bidding for public projects under the Design Build and Construction Management at Risk Contracts plan was weighed by the council Tuesday night. This authorizes the city staff to prepare action on items using this method.

“In traditional projects you have an engineer or an architect design the project,” said city manager Gary Person. “You go through the public bidding process then all the contractors bid on it. The low bidder usually receives the contract. The staff then works with the engineer or the firm depending on what type of project it is.

“This law allows for any kind of political subdivision to be able to bid something out based on credentials of contractors, architects and engineering firms,” he added. “You can mirror them in design-build while you can handle them independently in risk. Then, the two work on the design rather than upfront.”

This method would allow the city to give engineers their budget before having blueprints made. A plan like this one would curtail issues dealing with budget and desire. It could help avoid future problems with cost increases for projects such as the new proposed swimming pool.

“I’d like to thank Gary for doing the leg work on this,” said councilman Mark Nienhueser. “I think it gives us an option and our swimming pool is a prime example. Design firms, unfortunately, aren’t professional estimators. They don’t know how to quantify what they’re designing. All they can do is compare what other projects cost and give us an estimate on what our project would cost. And a million and a half slaying is not accurate. Thats where you need either one of these approaches.”

Person also made a report to the council pertaining to the new energy substations.

“With all the potential growth going on south of the Interstate and possibly east of the community, it would make a lot of sense,” Person said.

The council decided they would need more information on the new substations, their potential sites and cost to make a decision to move on in the process.

The council will next meet on Nov. 25.