Council rejects sewer plant bids

     Following some unfortunate news regarding the city waste water treatment facility project (sewer plant project) during the June 5 council meeting, the Monticello City Council voted to reject all bids during their June 19 meeting.

   During the last council meeting, the city engineer with Snyder & Associates reviewed the bids with the council. Bids came in $5 million to $7 million (25 percent) over budget. Snyder recommended at the time that the city reject all bids, essentially starting the process over in the fall.

   It was in the original plan for the waste water treatment facility to start the bidding process in January. USDA and DNR permit approvals and funding caused considerable delays. Therefore, bids went out in May and were due June 1.

   Snyder shared that the bid prices were a "combination of poor bid timing, uncertainty of product delivery times, and pricing over a longer-term project."

   Those who bid on the project were not in a place to explain the exact factors of their bids until the city took formal action to reject all bids.

   There are some considerations the council could consider when rebidding to potentially lower the project costs:

   • Value-engineering the project

   • Providing longer timelines to address supply chain timing constraints

   • Providing flexibility in pricing for more volatile production costs

   • Bidding during a more favorable timeframe, before contractors booked

   In a letter to the city, Snyder revealed that the "apparent low bidder" was Tricon General Contractors with a base bid of $24,700,000. The bid is considerably higher than the city's approved funding from the USDA. The project estimate was $17.5 million. There were two other bids. Tricon's total bid, which included five bid alternates, was $25,805,000.

   "Snyder is trying to nail down the cause," City Administrator Russ Farnum offered of the high bids. "There were multiple factors involved. We certainly cannot proceed with these bids."