Marla Goodrich was sworn-in by Mayor Tom Franz as the city’s new clerk of council at the July 11 city council meeting.
Ron Nunnari | The Register-Herald
ENGLEWOOD — A bid totaling $614,090 submitted by D and M Painting of Washington, Pa., was accepted by Englewood city council at its July 11 meeting for the painting, repair and other improvements to the one-million gallon south water tower located adjacent to Smith Drive in the Englewood West I-70 Commerce Park.
The city received 12 bids for the project. The engineer’s estimate for the rehabilitation was set at $774,000. D and M Painting’s bid was substantially lower than all other submitted bids.
Englewood secured two grants that will cover the cost of the project. A grant totaling $369,000 was obtained from the Ohio Department of Development and a zero percent interest 15-year loan was secured from the Ohio Public Works Commission.
“We got an excellent response. I was surprised by how many contractors were interested in this project… twelve,” said City Manager Eric Smith. “I didn’t realize there were that many water tower contractors in the United States, let alone in the eastern part.”
Smith added that the low bid by D and M came in way below staff’s expectation. He noted that there was an alternative included in the bid specifications to allow work to begin either this year or next.
“We were thinking the contractors were probably going to have their schedules filled for this year,” Smith stated. “Several of them actually said they had room to do it this year. The low bid contractor said that they would start on it this year. The cost would have actually been more expensive next year than this year.”
In addition to the repainting of the tower, Smith said other improvements would include replacement of some portals and the installation of a mixer in the bottom of the tank to keep chlorine stratified in the water for equal distribution throughout the city’s water system.
Councilman Andrew Gough asked if the engineer checks out the companies that submit bids to make sure they are legitimate contractors and that they have actually performed work like this before.
“This bid is way lower than a lot of the others,” Gough said, noting that a few bids came in at $900,000 or $1 million. “How was this company able to do it for that price?”
Smith said that the engineering firm the city hired to detail all of the work required to rehab the water tower developed 200 pages of specifications for bidding of the project.
“Dixon Engineering, all that they do is water towers. They specialize in it, and they keep track of any company that submits a bid and they would not recommend anyone that is not capable of doing the work,” Smith said.
He pointed out that the difference between the highest and lowest bid is about $400,000.
“That does seem like a lot, but sometimes people will bid high if they feel like they can get it and then they will rearrange their schedule to do the work and make a huge profit,” Smith added.
Marla Goodrich was sworn-in by Mayor Tom Franz as the new clerk of council at the beginning of the meeting.
