BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- City Council will hold a special meeting May 22 to vote on two time-sensitive road project bids. This followed project updates May 14 from city Service Director Paul Barnett and Engineer Matt Jones.
Barnett said his department has assured Ohio Department of Transportation officials that City Council will have made a decision by May 23 on legislation regarding the $10.5 million, ODOT-led North Carpenter Road reconstruction, from Boston Road to Clover Drive.
"The base bid came in at $10.5 million, so we did good on that," Barnett said. "But that does not include Grafton Road. The alternate bid for Grafton is $925,000, and we want to do that."
The South Carpenter Road portion of the project includes full concrete installation, with curbs and storm sewers, from the end of the existing concrete roadway on South Carpenter. That work also includes two turn lanes at the Grafton Road intersection.
The Grafton alternate bid calls for full reconstruction of Grafton, with two additional turn lanes at the South Carpenter intersection.
Barnett said delaying the Grafton work will "take two years of misery and make it three years."
He added, however, that the city is currently $91,000 short of its $3.2 million local match. Finance Director Todd Fischer is expected to provide council with proposed adjustments to the budget in order to accommodate this expenditure.
"It's a matter of jockeying some things around," Barnett said.
The South Carpenter project is expected to start in late 2018, with completion expected in the fall of 2020, Barnett said.
The major portion of the work, he added, will be taking place in the spring of 2019 and 2020.
Council will also see legislation at the May 22 special meeting to award a contract for road work on Laurel Road. Barnett said the city has received 10 bids on the Laurel Road project. Bids for that estimated $1.15 million project are being opened May 16.
Salt buy
Council also voted to partner with ODOT on its winter road salt contract for the 2018-2019 season.
Barnett said the city still has 2,000 tons of road salt on hand after using 6,000 tons during the 2017-2018 winter season. He added that the city exercised its option to purchase an additional 10 percent of its ordered amount of salt last year, in anticipation of the $30-per-ton price increasing after the hard 2017-2018 winter.
Allowing that trying to outthink winter weather in Northeast Ohio can be tricky, Barnett said he expects the city to come out ahead financially in the long run, with prices possibly increasing to as much as $38 per ton this year.
The city will purchase 4,500 tons of road salt this year through the ODOT program.
Hot tub project up in the air
City Council rejected its first and only bid to replace the hot tub in the Brunswick Recreation Center pool area, following a motion from Recreation Director John Piepsny.
Piepsny said it is unclear what his department's next move will be with regard to the hot tub.
"I have been in conversations with the city manager to come up with a plan of action," Piepsny said. "The first time we went out for bids, we didn't receive a single bid. This time, the bid came in well above budget and did not include the hot tub."
Piepsny added that his department has seen a notable drop in bids for construction projects recently.
"We used to get a lot of bids for construction projects, but recently we have only been getting one or two (per project)," he said.
Additional police camera approved
Council approved a $5,000 request from Police Chief Brian Ohlin to add one mobile video camera to the department's previously approved $50,000 contract with Safety Vision to upgrade the entire fleet.
Fischer explained that when a K9 unit was added recently, it required the department to keep an older cruiser in the fleet.
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