Portland awards sewer contract

Portland’s northwest sewer project will be kept in Jay County hands.
Portland Board of Works on Thursday morning approved Redkey-based Watson Excavating Inc.’s base bid plus one alternate project, pending approval from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. The overall cost is estimated at $866,905.
The decision came a month after opening 11 bids at January’s meeting and finding Watson to be the lowest on the base price and any combination of the three additional options for the project.
“We’ve gone through the bid on each one of them. The lower four or five contractors were really tight bids,” said Brian Houghton of Jones & Henry Engineers. “Depending on which alternates we selected may change which contractor is successful. In this case though, it turned out that Watson was low on the base and any combination we had in there.”
Originally estimated at $1.2 million, the project entails installation of storm sewer lines and road construction or paving in areas of Grand, Race Arch, High, Alexander and Williams streets and is meant to alleviate flooding in the area by replacing the 24-inch storm sewer on Grand Street and installing new 18-inch lines on the northern end of the system. The alternate chosen will add new storm sewers and repaving on Western Street from Walnut Street to High Street.
Houghton said an option to install a new sanitary sewer on Grand Street from Main Street to Arch Street would be issued as a change order later on in the project after receiving construction permits.
Board members Bill Gibson, Jerry Leonhard and Mayor Randy Geesaman approved the bid unanimously.
In other business, the board:
•Approved writing off eight delinquent accounts — relating to water, sewer or recycling bills — totaling $412.17.
•Pushed its regular meeting for next month back one week to 10 a.m. March 12.