ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
As of Monday, the Kansas Department of Transportation had not announced what projects would be funded under the state’s High Risk Rural Roads (HRRR) program.
That was the news from C.W. Harper of Kirkham Michael, the firm hired by Seward County to address road issues in the county. Harper did say, though, there will likely be seven projects funded under the program this year, one in each district, and he felt one of Seward County’s projects stood a good chance of beng funded.
“They’re larger projects, which would be a good indicator for us, as ours is a larger project,” he said at Monday’s county commission meeting. “Seward County has not used HRRR funds in the past, and pretty much all the other district’s six counties have. I’m holding out strong hope we have a good chance of being the selected project.”
Harper added some of the county’s road may be targeted for some chip and crack sealing soon, as well as some other maintenance work.
Commission Chairman Scott Carr said commissioners have heard from 125th House District Representative Shannon Francis during recent local legislative updates, and at the most recent update, the representative talked about possible funding for Meade Lake Road, a road impacted by recent growth in the area’s dairy industry.
“They have some money that became available where they can apply to dairy entrances,” Carr said. “If we don’t get the Cost Share, we might have another avenue just in case, but hopefully, we get the Cost Share this year.”
Also on Monday’s agenda was possible action concerning bids for bleachers at the rodeo arena at the Seward County Fairgrounds. After much in the way of discussion in the last year, commissioners recently chose to go with the option of purchasing new bleachers for the arena after other sets were heavily damaged in a storm a few years ago.
Contract Consultant Neal Coffey said at the commission’s direction, staff recently took on the task of writing a scope of work and an invitation to bid for the replacement bleachers at the rodeo arena.
“The scope document spelled out a used set of arena bleachers,” he said. “That was issued March 24, and you did receive two bids back. One of the bids came in from Bleachers International, and that bid was for a new set of bleachers for $292,650. You also received bids from Hanson Sports with a used set of bleachers for $410,500 and a new set for $498,750 at your direction. We called Bleachers International and had a Zoom meeting with them to determine more about the company since they were the low bid.”
Coffey said county staff member Melinda Baker did a Better Business Bureau search, which revealed an A+ rating for Bleachers International.
“We did find out the company has been in business for 10 years,” Coffey said. “They’ve done a number of projects in Kansas, but as we reviewed the scope document with the owner of the company, we discovered there was no splash shield in the quote.”
Coffey said a splash shield was not included because the bidder did not understand why such a measure was needed.
“The reason he didn’t understand it is the construction of his bleachers is what’s called a solid construction inasmuch as the base interlocks the pieces so nothing can go through there such as your comb or your wallet,” he said. “When asked him about the lady who spills the announce soda pop and where it’s going to go, he said it’s going to run out and go down below the bleachers.”
Coffey said once this was explained to the bidder, it was understood why a splash shield was needed. Following that discussion an amended proposal was put out by Bleachers International.
“The amended scope added $6,928 to the base price,” he said.
That additional cost would bring the cost of the Bleachers International bid to $299,578. Coffey said the purchased bleachers are new and are a full engineering, procurement and construction onsite project.
“The only thing we will be providing is the concrete footers, once we figure out the engineering requirement, his engineer will feed back to us in the drawings,” he said. “We’ll get the location of those footers. We will have to pay to have the soil surveys done so we know what the load bearing capacity on the soils are, and his engineer will take that into consideration and final design of what those structures need to look like.”
Coffey said he was in the process of working with Kaw Valley Engineering to get either a survey or a proposal so the work can move forward.
“If we approve this, it needs to move at a fairly fast pace to meet the deadline of July 19,” he said.
Coffey, however, said he was not pleased with the payment terms of the bid, and neither was Commission Vice Chair Tammy Sutherland-Abbott.
“I don’t like that we’ve got 85 percent paid before they’re even starting to work,” Sutherland-Abbott said. “Anything could happen, and once the money’s gone, we can’t recover it. That’s not fair to our taxpayers.”
Commissioner C.J. Wettstein instead said 50 percent should be paid up front, with 30 percent being paid upon substantial completion and a final 20 percent paid when the project was finished.
“We really want to see material laying on the ground out here and then push to have it done,” he said.
County Clerk Stacia Long said companies typically want money up front to purchase materials.
“That’s typically what we see in a contract – 50 percent upon approval,” she said. “It’s good practice obviously, but I will tell you that money typically goes towards them purchasing that stuff anyway.”
Commissioners would later vote to take the new payment terms back to Bleachers International. Though he believed that to be a reasonable proposal, Coffey did say there is mitigation in the agreement as well.
“He will have to post a bond for 100 percent value as soon as we sign the contract,” he said. “That affords us some protection. This payment term schedule should be reasonable for us and keep him cash neutral through the process.”
With change orders happening on several recent county projects, Commissioner Presephoni Fuller asked what the possibility was of getting a change order. Coffey said he feels there is little chance of a change order.
“We have the drawings in our hands,” Coffey said. “We’ve looked at them. The scope appears to be very comprehensive.”
Coffey said Bleachers International provided 21 references, and he reached out to most of them.
“Eight responded, and every one of those responded that they did a good job, were very good to work with, and they would use them again,” he said. “That also gave me another level of confidence this is probably the right guy.”
Fuller asked if any of the references were for projects of the size of bleachers the county was looking for, which ranged from seating for 1,200 to 1,500 people. Coffey said some were even larger than that.
“The very first one that responded was a $1.6 million project, and they came back very favorable,” Coffey said. “All the feedback I got was very positive, and the phone conversation we had with the gentleman also left us with a very positive attitude. They know what they’re doing, and I don’t have much concern other than that payment schedule.”
County Counsel Nathan Foreman said before the commission could accept a revised bid, a motion needed to be made to accept the bid, and a reason needed to be given. He added the county’s purchasing policy needed to be waived as well for the reason given.
Fuller asked if Bleachers International needed to be contact to let them know of the county’s terms. Long said approval could be made without contacting the company.
“If they don’t accept it, they just don’t accept it,” Long said.
Coffey said county staff did not feel comfortable going back to Bleachers International with the amended payment terms without letting commissioners provide their feedback.
Carr said the nearly $300,000 bid would only cover the bleachers, and he believed no more would be done on that bid once the county received bids for concrete work. Coffey, however, said the bid would likely come back, and once everything was finalized, the total cost of the project would likely be around $400,000.
“The only reason it’s important I say that is when I came to you with the original rodeo grounds moving, I told you I didn’t think that was fully funded,” Coffey said.
The consultant said based on funds the county received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, the project is fully funded.
Carr made the motion to set the amended bid for the amount of $299,578, to waive the purchasing policy and make a revision to the payment terms to 50 percent up front, 30 percent substantial completion and 20 percent completion. Fuller seconded the motion, and the commission voted unanimously to approve.
