Plymouth Street Superintendent Jim Marquardt asked members of the Board of Public Works and Safety to award the Community Crossing Matching Grant to low bidder E & B Paving pending the determination of the required local matching funds.
E & B Paving’s low bid for the Gibson and East Laporte Street projects was $1,321,195. The city’s local match is $689,164.50. Superintendent Marquardt explained that the low bid was higher than the estimated bid submitted with the grant application. Therefore, the city is responsible for the additional funds over the 50/50 match, or $57,124.50.
Marquardt also told the Board of Public Works that the line item in his budget he planned to pay the matching funds from was not funded. It was anticipated that $807,000 was available but when he and the clerk-treasurer began working on the local matching funds it was realized the line item wasn’t funded.
The Board of Public Works and Safety awarded the paving project to E & B Paving and told Marquardt to approach the Common Council for the local matching funds.
During the Council meeting, Marquardt said he could come up with just over $200,000 by transferring some money in his budget to assist with the matching funds. He also suggested taking the $100,000 from the Blue Zones might be an idea. The only other idea was using the Rainy-Day Funds.
Following a discussion between the city council, city attorney, and clerk-treasurer the motion was made to transfer all the funds from the Rainy-Day Fund and give the clerk-treasurer a chance to determine the best way to fund the local match and then pay back the Rainy-Day Fund.
