Monticello Council discusses roads

by Anna Thayn

It was a short agenda for the October 8 meeting of the Monticello City Council, with most of the discussion revolving around streets. 

Streets Supervisor Benny Musselman presented the council with a report on street issues in Monticello.  He said that the Uranium Drive project is complete, and most of the residents in the area seem pleased with the road. 

Musselman reported that potholes are a big item on a lot of peoples minds.  He said that it is only in the past two weeks that pothole patch material became available, at which time they purchased a load of cold mix at a cost of $1,500, compared to approximately $450 a year ago. 

Musselman told the council that the city is trying to fill potholes in the main drive lanes first, and has to let the holes on the shoulders go at this time, due to lack of materials.  He told the council that there are several utility patches still to do, but they are waiting on the availability of hot mix. They need approximately 10 to 12 tons at this time. 

Musselman said they are working on some possible alternatives for patching using materials that are more readily available at this time.  They hope to experiment with alternatives soon. 

Musselman also told the council the city is looking for more money in the budget in order to repave at least one more city block.  Musselman said that the worst blocks are on 100 West, the first being Center Street to 100 South, which they would like to do first.  The second block is 100 North to 200 North, but it needs a complete water line replacement before being repaved. 

In other public works news, Musselman reported that the city is working on a snow removal policy in order to prioritize the areas of town that need immediate snow removal, and allow for a more smooth cleanup after storms.  The city hopes that by doing so, they will have an orderly removal after each storm that the public will be able to count on.

City Manager Myron Lee presented the council with three bids for the public works/fire department equipment shed.  He told the council that the engineers estimate was $550,000 for the project. 

Only one bid came within the City budget, at $549,500 from Dennis Laird.  The other bids were quite a bit out of the budget, at  $711,000 and $965,000.  Lee reported that the engineer is going through the bid with Dennis Laird in order to finalize the qualification of the company.  If the engineer is able to qualify the bid, Lee recommended that the City award the bid to Dennis Laird. 

Lee told the council that if they are unable to qualify the company, the City has approximately $65,000 left over from the site work, which came in under budget, but they would need to come up with approximately $100,000 in reductions on the project in order to go with the second lowest bidder. 

Lee said that if all went well, they would be able to have the building up by December, with occupancy late in the winter.  The council approved awarding the bid to the lowest qualified bidder, to be determined by the engineering firm of Caldwell, Richards, and Sorenson. 

Lee presented the council - talked with the City’s insurance company, which is the Utah Trust, and they stated that the City has liability insurance that would cover anyone on city property, including the golf course, regardless of whether or not they are playing golf. 

Councilman Scott Frost asked for a clarification of whether or not the liability is more for the golf course. Lee said no, it is not. 

Councilman Scott Shakespeare presented the council with an award the City of Monticello received from the Seventh District Court.  The city was nominated for the award by Deputy Probation Office/Victim Impact Coordinator Art Adair. 

Every year the juvenile court “RESTA” program gives eight awards to organizations that go above and beyond in assisting with youth programs, in helping youth offenders complete their community service hours in order to pay restitution to people who have been the victims of crimes. Shakespeare attended the awards ceremony to received the award on behalf of the city.

In other business City Manager Myron Lee reported to the council that the FAA is anxious to go ahead with the new airport construction.  He stated that the design will be complete by the end of December and the FAA would like to have it under construction by March.

Lee also told the council they had received three bids for the Visitors Center parking lot, with a low bid of $283,000.  Lee reported that the engineers estimate was $250,000 and told the council that when the bid is more than 10% over the engineers estimate, the City has a choice to either come up with the additional money and go forward with the project, or they can do a new design and rebid the project.  Lee reported that the project does not include the actual paving of the parking lot, but is just the curb and gutter and sidewalk for the entire block around the visitors center.   Lee recommended that they rework the project, as he is not sure where they would come up with the additional $33,000.   Lee suggested that they repackage the project so that they will bid the base package for construction in the spring, and then bid the asphalt portion of the project separately in the spring, if there is enough money left over.  The council agreed that the best option would be restructuring and rebidding the project.