After change order, water main, sewer bids get okay

    After a few change orders were included, bids on a city water main project and for sewer service extension to the WellPark housing development were approved.
    Midlands Contracting of Kearney won the contracts for both projects, and gained approval of their lowered bids Monday on 4-0 council votes.
    With the change orders, the sewer extension work to the WellPark housing development owned by Dennis Kunnemann was reduced by nearly $68,000. Its lowered bid of $186,772 gained approval.
    The city plans to build a 12” water main along East 12th Street from Shorthorn Street east to Highway 61, connecting two dead-ended mains.
    The bid for that work approved Monday was $319,265. It was reduced $8,000 because it saves Midlands Contracting the mobilization costs by doing the two projects at the same time.
    Three weeks ago, the bids were reviewed at a council meeting, but came in higher than the engineer’s estimates.
    Kunnemann said then he wanted to discuss options with city engineer Chris Miller to reduce his costs to get sewer service to his development, so the bid approval for both projects was delayed until this week.
    Since the $8,000 was reduced on the city’s water main bid because the two projects were bid together, it appears the city will reduce Kunnemann’s assessment costs by half of that, or $4,000, once the work is done, according to Monday’s discussion.
    Public Works Supt. Pat Davison said he didn’t know when work would start on the projects.
Two trailers to be abated
at Capitol Mobile Court
    Two trailers, one of them burned to the ground in a fire in June, will be abated after other action at Monday’s council meeting.
    Amber Kuskie with West Central Nebraska Development District, the city’s nuisance officer, recommended the burned trailer at 414 East 10th Street be abated, along with another trailer at 408 1/2 East 10th Street.
    The burned trailer is in shambles at the corner of East 10th and Shorthorn Streets. The trailer at 408 1/2 East 10th was described by Kuskie as unsecured, with several broken windows and skirting not in place.
    Owners of the trailers will now be notified with certified letters and given five days to remove them, and if not done, the abatement, or removal, process will proceed at the owner’s expense
    Kuskie said they’ve had a “very successful” response from Imperial property owners after its recent nuisance review of sections of town on this year’s schedule.
    Fifty-two property owners received an initial courtesy letter on an identified nuisance, of which 48 cleared the problem for a 92% response rate.
    Two of the other four property owners are working with WCNDD on their nuisance issues, she said.
    In other business, the council wrote off $2,394.50 in utility department charges that have been unpaid and approved the Citizen Advisory Committee reports for the past year (two 6-month reports) on the use of LB 840 city sales tax funds, as presented by Community Development Director Tyler Pribbeno.