On January 16th the Marshall County Drainage Board met for their first meeting of the new year. The board voted to retain the same officers as last year; Kurt Garner President and Kevin Overmyer Vice President. They also affirmed the reappointments of Dan Voreis and Randy Glingle as citizen board members, Jim Clevenger as the board attorney and Barb Neidlinger as Recording Secretary.
The board opened maintenance bids for the Mattingly Ditch in German Township. The project call for cleaning approximately 18 inches of sediment and debrush approximately 11,000 fee of the Mattingly Ditch and also clean and debrush approximately 5,400 feet of the Mattingly Arm on the east side of Lake of the Woods. Property owners are to be notified to make all tile locations.
Four contractors bid on the project: Langfeldt Excavating $13,120; Koontz Excavating $21,999; Ingram Excavating $12,300; and Kolesiak Construction $9,867.
Before the bid was awarded Marvin Houin asked to comment. He said you always go with the cheapest bid but this is a critical location on the ditch with fear of banks sliding in if the project is not done correctly. He suggested the look for the most reasonable bid with the most experience.
Board member Dan Voreis said Kolesiak cleaned his ditch the last time and hit a 12 inch tile and underground buried wires. He said it was a real mess.
Houin said, “Kolesiak has done a lot of work in the county and they’ve screwed up a lot too.”
The County Drainage Board voted to hire Ingram Excavating for the maintenance project, noting their concern with the quality of work the low bidder has performed.
