CITY OF FORT SCOTT
SPECIAL CITY COMMISSION MEETING
Minutes of February 11th, 2021 Special Meeting #4
A special meeting of the Fort Scott City Commission was held February 11th, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. in the City Commission Meeting Room, 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas.
ROLL CALL:
Commissioners Kevin Allen, Pete Allen, and Randy Nichols were present with Mayor Josh Jones presiding. Lindsey Watts was absent.
AUDIENCE IN ATTENDANCE: Travis Shelton, Michael Mix, Chad Brown, and Michael Hoyt.
CONSIDERATION:
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Consideration of Waterline Materials Bid – Chad Brown, Public Works Director, informed the Commission that bids were taken to replace the waterline on Cooper Street from 20th to 23rd Street. There were four bids received with the low bid from Schulte Supply of Independence, Missouri in the amount of $21,226.17. The materials are to be delivered by February 26th, 2021.
Discussion was held regarding the fact that this company is out of Missouri and not from Kansas.
More discussion was held regarding if the low bid was rejected, if they would continue to bid in the future.
Chad said that Schulte Supply does supply a lot of our waterline materials and we have ordered from them in the past.
Susan Bancroft said that we can revisit our purchase policy at the next City Commission meeting regarding our policy on accepting bids.
K. Allen moved to approve the low bid from Schulte Supply of Independence, Missouri in the amount of $21,226.17. R. Nichols seconded. K. Allen, R. Nichols and J. Jones voted aye. P. Allen voted no. Motion carried 3-1.
APPROVED LOW BID FROM SCHULTE SUPPLY OF INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI IN THE AMOUNT OF $21,226.17 FOR WATERLINE MATERIALS ON COOPER STREET.
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Consideration of Change Order #1-Sanitary Sewer Cleaning & Video Inspection Services – Michael Mix said that our contract was approved with Pipe Detectives of Jamestown, North Dakota in the amount of $78,215.00 on October 20th, 2020. He believes that Nate Stansberry appeared before the Commission to seek approval of this contract. That was not a grand total amount and the contract was set up with rates. It should have been approved at an amount not to exceed $120,000. The $78,215.00 was an estimate. There is no way to tell how many hours they are going to spend cutting roots out of a line. In addition, when out in the field, there are manholes that are added that weren’t known about. He asked for the full $120,000.00 amount so we can get as much done as possible. The contractor has gone over the $78,215.00 amount now. They are at $89,855.50. This company just checked in with him. He needs to ask for an additional $11,640.50 due to the additional specialty cleaning or approve the not to exceed $120,000.00 amount. Michael pointed out at the bottom of the bid sheet, it stated that “all quantities are estimated and the City reserves the right to change the scope and quantity of pipe cleaned and inspected without modification of quoted price”.
Josh asked if the contract had been changed.
Michael said yes it had. This company found pipe in the ground that they didn’t know was there. They had 51 hours of specialty cleaning. There is no way to tell until they get in the ground what needs cleaned.
Kevin said that he has stopped and talked to this crew and they are good guys. Can the City not clean the roots? Do we have equipment to do this?
Michael said we do not. Our camera cannot get in the line.
Kevin asked about the camera system that was purchased in 2006. We bought a new vacuum truck, a camera system, and software. He asked what happened to this equipment.
Michael said that there was a lot of money put into the old vacuum truck and it was costing a lot in maintenance. We bought a push camera in 2018 or 2019. This camera is limited in length and very small.
Discussion was held if the City located the manholes or if this company charged us to located them.
Josh asked if they had to clean up debris around the manholes and were we charged for that?
Michael said that some of the manholes had to have trees and brush cleaned up to get to, and once they get in the manhole, they cleaned all the roots out.
Kevin asked why we didn’t have the manholes cleaned and ready for this crew so we didn’t have to pay extra for that.
Michael said that he didn’t have a list of the manholes with brush around them. He had never seen some of the manholes.
Josh asked if they charged us $350.00 an hour to cut brush?
Michael said that is the rate. There is a grand total of 51 hours of specialty hours. Two hours of that is removal of really large rocks they had to remove to get the manhole. All the rest is root removal.
Pete said that he has a problem with doing a change order after the work has been done and not before.
Kevin said that the company should have been shut down when they reached the contract price. Now we are on the hook for over $11,000 which we didn’t approve.
Michael said that he should have appeared before them sooner.
Susan said that all of the bidders bid this project the same way. The City budgeted for $120,000 for this project. It was bid on a rate basis. We asked for the best rate.
Josh said that we should have known there would be more specialty work. This is on the City. We should have located every manhole and cleaned them up before this company showed up.
Pete asked if we have seen any results yet from their work.
Michael said that the manhole by Buck Run should not overflow again. There are lots of lines that are clean now that were choaked up with roots. We will see immense results.
Pete asked what equipment we need in order to do this work ourselves.
Michael said that we need some larger saws and an easement machine and a new camera van.
Pete said that the new camera van is in the upcoming budget.
Michael said that he doesn’t have prices on any of this equipment.
Michael said that doesn’t think they billed us for that.
Kevin said that they have. He talked to them. He asked where all the equipment is from 2006?
Michael said the camera van is in bad condition. It is not usable.
Josh made a motion to increase the contract $30,450 or a maximum not to exceed $120,000. He also included that no more cutting trees or brush removal be included in their billings or locating manholes. R. Nichols seconded.
Pete said that this was poorly bid and poorly supervised. He doesn’t feel comfortable and we should stop this project where it is. We could use the additional $30,000 and buy equipment that we can use to do this work.
Josh said that his thoughts are that this work will be vital for our sewers and he would like to see it get completed. He doesn’t want the process slowed because of how we set it up.
Kevin said that they are hard workers and from North Dakota and they are used to cold weather. It’s not the fault of this company. He asked if this will locate every manhole in town.
Michael said that is a separate project. These are the main lines that carry the most flow.
Kevin asked about tabling this until tomorrow and Michael could bring some prices back to them.
Michael said that he needs to give them an answer about when and if to come back on this project.
Jeremy said that according to his figures there is still an extra $305.00.
Michael said that when we get to $120,000 they would have to stop. He said he could try and bring them some figures tomorrow.
Josh made a motion to withdraw his motion to approve the request. Randy seconded to withdraw his motion.
Josh Jones made a motion to table this issue until 1:00 p.m. Pete Allen seconded. K. Allen, P. Allen, and J. Jones votes aye. R. Nichols voted no. Motion carried 3-1.
APPROVED TO TABLE THIS CHANGE ORDER UNTIL 1:00 P.M. ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH, 2021.
ADJOURNMENT:
J. Jones moved to adjourn the special meeting at 4:07 p.m. K. Allen seconded. All voted aye.
ADJOURNED MEETING AT 4:07 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Diane K. Clay, M.M.C.
City Clerk