Portland gets bids for sewer work

Eleven bids were opened Thursday morning in preparation for Portland’s west side sewer separation project.
Portland Board of Works accepted the contracting bids — ranging from $770,000 to more than $1 million — and will review them in the coming days, with assistance from Jones & Henry Engineers and Jay County community developer Ami Huffman.
Each bid was introduced with a base price and three alternates for possible options to be added to the project, which will see installation of storm sewer lines and road reconstruction or paving in areas of Grand, Race, Arch, High, Alexander and Williams streets.
Alternate A is the installation of new storm sewers on Arch Street from Grand Street to Western Street. Alternate B includes new storm sewers and repaving on Western Street from Walnut Street to High Street. Alternate C is the installation of a new sanitary sewer on Grand Street from Main Street to Arch Street.
The project is meant to help flooding in the area, replacing the 24-inch storm sewer on Grand Street and installing new 18-inch lines on the northern end of the system.
With an original estimate of $1.2 million for the project, many of the base bids allow room for alternates to be taken into account and added to the project, explained Huffman.
Base bids included:
•VTF Excavation, Celina, Ohio, $864,521.06
•Bruns Excavation, St. Henry, Ohio, $788,450
•Keith Sullivan Excavating, Marion, $1,002,904.15
•Miller Contracting, Ottoville, Ohio, $840,627.50
•A. Landon Excavating, Portland, $834,136.40
•Culy Contracting, Winchester, $991,662
•Yardberry Landscaping, Anderson, $984,730
•Watson Excavating, Redkey, $770,740
•Brackney Inc., Brookville, $927,976
•Atlas Excavating, West Lafayette, $1,096,556
•Milestone Contractors, Portland, $991,838

Board members Bill Gibson, Jerry Leonhard and Geesaman accepted the bids unanimously, and contractors will be notified when a selection has been made.
In other business, the board:
•Approved the purchase of a truck bed that was bid by Mid-State Truck Equipment, Fishers, at a cost of $17,900 to be used by Portland Street Department.
It was one of three bids, chosen for its compatibility with the department’s other truck bed that was also purchased from the company.
•Voided eight checks, totaling $3,473.26, that hadn’t been cashed or deposited since being issued at least two years ago.
•Approved a contract with consulting engineer firm Beam, Longest and Neff LLC for $84,100 to work with the city on the Safe Routes to School project, which proposes to make the area’s surrounding city schools safer by creating additional sidewalks.