Colby council approves street repair bids

The Colby city council passed a motion to approve bids on its two street repair projects for this year, though it didn’t come without some amount of consternation from the people of Colby, or in this case, one person.

The Colby council approved a motion to accept a pair of bids from Francis Melvin Inc, for its North Street repair project and its Community Drive repair project in the amount of $1,865,000 and $559,000.

The North Second Street project brought in a total of seven bids, ranging from $2.8 million to $1.8 million. The Francis Melvin inc, bid that was approved also includes the base bid and alternate bids that includes additional ducts and pipes.

Depending on weather conditions, construction is slated to begin sometime in the late spring or early summer. Once construction begins Francis Melvin Inc will have 90 days to complete the project.

The Community Drive project saw six companies put out bids, ranging from $854,000 at the high end to Francis Melvin Inc’s bid at $559,000. The bid was approved contingent on the clarification and resolution by the city attorney of the city’s pending lease agreement with Harold K. Christensen.

Christensen has raised concerns regarding the upcoming Community Drive project and how it affects his property.

“We’ve been trying to contact Kenny Christensen since last spring. He says we never contacted him, and there was a lot messages left at his office, lot of e-mails,” mayor James Schmidt said.

“Today he came and called and [DPW

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Harland Higley] and myself went up there, and he says that he has a contract with us and we can’t disturb anything east of Community Drive.”

Schmidt says they showed Christensen the documents that he and the city had signed, and pointed out that based on the contract it states the city of Colby has the right to perform road construction east of Christensen’s property.

Another the point of contention relates to new retention ponds that would have to put in and are required by the DNR. DPW Harland Higley said Christensen was concerned how the construction project would affect his farmland.

The Community Drive project is slated to last 40 days. Higley noted that Christensen can still farm on the land when the construction project is complete.

After discussing the wording of the

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motion, mayor Schmidt told the council the should approve the motion as worded to move forward with project.

“I think we should approve it this way so we can keep moving forward. If the weather is good in the spring, we could almost have this project before they start Second Street.”

Other business

n City clerk Connie Gurtner reported the city had collected 36 percent of Clark County taxes and 26 percent of Marathon County taxes.

n The council expressed their thanks to Lorraine Fischer for her clean up of debris from last month’s storm.

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