County committee hopes rebidding will save taxpayer money

Taylor County is hoping for better bids the second time around for repaving projects planned for this summer in the western part of the county.

Highway commissioner Ben Stanfley on Tuesday asked commission members to reject the hot mix asphalt bids for the paving project on CTH H and CTH D received from American Asphalt because he feels they could get a lower price by rebidding it.

Stanfley explained that with the projects being in the western part of the county, it puts Chippewa County into play as being an asphalt supplier through their plant in Bloomer. However, Chippewa County had not submitted a bid for the work with the other materials bids that were received.

Stanfley projected the county would save about $55,761 by going with Chippewa County versus the bids received. He said he had also been in communication with American Asphalt and said he felt they would also be very competitive depending on the outcome of the state bid on the Hwy 73/64 repaving project. “They think they can beat this bid,” Stanfley said.

Distance that materials has to be hauled makes a big impact on the price the county received. Stanfley noted there was large haul time with those particular projects.

The need to save wherever possible in road projects is especially relevant this year with increasing fuel and materials prices. According to Stanfley across all the county projects, asphalt is about 21% higher this year compared to last year. “Which will cost us an additional $171,000 this year which is close to last year’s cost for a mile of road to be reconstructed,” he said.

Chipseal oil is about 17% higher this year compared to last year. “Which will cost us an additional $49,000 this year which is more than three miles of chipseal when compared to last year’s cost,” he said.

Commission members approved the materials bids while specifically rejecting the bids for the CTH H and CTH D project with the intent to rebid those and award the bid in early May.

In a related action, committee members tabled a request for adding a limited term employee until after those bids are awarded. If the county goes with Chippewa County for the bid, Stanfley said it would be more cost effective to use a county employee on a county truck to haul the materials to the job site rather than contracting it out. He estimated the actual paving part of the projects would be about two weeks and suggested they could hire a recent retiree from the department to run the loads. Stanfley said the county typically runs about $96 per hour for a contracted truck and driver and that by using the county’s equipment it would allow them to save more than half of that amount.

In other business, committee members:

_ Approved a bridge aid request for 10th Avenue in the town of Roosevelt. The current culvert is being replaced with a “squashed” six foot culvert at a total cost of $16,548 with the county and town splitting it and each paying $8,274.

_ Approved replacing a patrolman position. According to Stanfley they already have a qualified applicant from their most recent round of hiring and the person could start along with the other two recent hires on April 4. Current patrolman Dave Salzmann is leaving the county to start his own business.