At the Hollandale Village Board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 1, the board awarded the water quality trading project that will take place on Todd Leonard’s land to Ferrell Excavating of Blanchardville.
A bid opening took place on August 21 where five bids were received. The lowest bid was from Ferrell Excavating for $73,720 for the rip rap project taking place on the Leonard’s land. This project, which includes 10 sites along the Dodge Branch of the Pecatonica River System, will give the village 148 lb/year of offset water quality trading (WQT) credits. It will help the village maintain an effluent limit of 1.0 mg/l and not qualify for a full WQT.
Rachel Jaeger from Davy Engineering told the board that there was an issue with Ferrell Excavating’s insurance, as it didn’t meet the level of standards that Davy Engineering required when doing projects. She gave the board two options, to either accept the insurance as it was and create a change order to that states the change to having their insurance the same or they could continue to have the specified insurance and require that Ferrell Excavating meet those standards. If those standards aren’t met after a certain time, Ferrell Excavating would then forfeit their bid security and the village would have to start the bid process over.
Jaeger stated the level insurance they require is for all their projects, big or small. Owner Stan Ferrell stated he did talk with his insurance and did ask for an increase in his liability insurance but it still doesn’t meet the complete level of requirement by Davy Engineering.
The project was estimated to cost around $125,000 so Ferrell’s bid is significantly lower then that estimate. The next bid was Rural Construction at $112,789. With Ferrell’s bid, the project cost for the village was an estimated $292,220. If the village were not to accept Ferrell’s bid, they could be paying an additional $38,800 with the next closest bid. As for the other bids, there was an additional bid that was below the estimated $125,000 and two that were well above that estimation.
The village has worked with Ferrell in the past and Ferrell did the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) riprap project that took place earlier this year on Leonard’s property. Ferrell explained that he has several similar projects in the past and his insurance has never been an issue in the 30 years he has been in business.
The project is estimated to take a couple of weeks to get done. It should be starting sometime this week. The project needs to be complete by October 15, as a rule by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) due to the Blanchard Cricket Frog’s mating season. Leonard mentioned that someone from the DNR was already out on his property and no frogs were found.
Jaeger said that many of the estimations in the total project number were accurate but some were high end estimations for worse case scenarios. If the village is able to have Public Works Director Jerry Doescher do a lot of the documentations of the project so someone from Davy Engineering doesn’t have to come out, that would decrease project costs. If there is no one available for certain documentations to take place, it will cost the village $1,500-$2,000 per day for someone from Davy Engineering to record.
Carl Olson made the motion to accept the bid from Ferrell Excavating and accept the insurance that he has and creating a change order to reflect that. Austin Parks seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Ferrell stated that as soon as all of the contracts are squared away and things get signed, he was hoping to get started on the project this week.
Public Works
Doescher received a bid from Paradis Construction for $7,950 to do the siding at the Village Hall/Legion Building for three sides. Olson made the motion to accept the bid with Rob Massey seconding. The money the village received from the Blanchardville/Hollandale Area Fund will be used to pay for the siding.
The Iowa County Highway Building should be getting started soon. There were issues with getting material and products. The foundation has been poured and they should be done later this week. There was a completion date of December 1 but with the delays it has been moved back to January 1. Iowa
County Highway Commissioner Craig Hardy will be at the next board meeting to discuss that project and the sidewalk project.
The county had applied for the TAP Grant to help pay for the sidewalk from the school to the old Iowa County Highway building and that grant has been approved. There is no timeline on when that will start or be completed. This project will also include fixing the retaining wall along Highway 191 and putting in a crossing light at the corner of County K and 191, going across to State Street.
Other business
The board approved the picnic license for the Slade Norton tournament this weekend.
The board approved the quote for the new plow plus mounts and controls for a total of $12,580.
Fall dumpster day will be Saturday, October 10 from 7-11 a.m.