By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
The economic stimulus program will help Nephi, through a block grant.
"Bids have been received on several of the projects funded by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant," said Randy McKnight, city administrator. "The block grant program is part of the federal economic stimulus program."
Greg Rowley, after some council debate, made the motion to award the bids for city hall lighting and police department lighting, for materials only, to Central Electric Supply, low bidder at $12.080, and for the cooling and heating projects at city hall, the police department, the electric department, the road department and the airport buildings to Central Valley Mechanical, the low bidder at $41,414.
The projects for which bids were ready to be reviewed and awarded included: Materials for a lighting retrofit at city hall and in the police department building; the necessary labor and materials for cooling system upgrades at city hall and in the police department building; the labor and materials for heating system upgrades at the electric department, streets department and airport buildings; the labor and materials for lighting system upgrades at the Old Gym, a recreation facility; the gas department, electric department and street department buildings.
Dr. Byron Woodland, county economic development director, put together the grant application for both Nephi and for Juab County. Woodland was present at the meeting.
"Both Nephi and the county received grant money for their projects," said McKnight.
"The amount of the bid is not the only matter to consider," said Woodland.
The bidder must meet the goals of the project which means they project should benefit the local economy, materials should be American-made and wages must meet the federal guidelines as to wages.
"One of the components is still to come," said Woodland. "The proposals for the Old Gym and for the old armory (now a city building), for the windows replacement project may now have to meet an historical requirement."
The buildings each were constructed well over 50 years ago, said Woodland. That fact meant that the windows would now need to meet historic building requirements.
Because of that issue, there may be up to $70,000 in grant funds that will now need to be used on other projects.
"There is a fluidity of funds," he said.
One of those leverage figures was the in-kind fee the city must contribute to the grant. Clark Wood, city employee, is an experienced builder and carpenter. He will install the needed equipment as part of the city's in-kind contribution. That means that only materials on some of the projects would need to be purchased.
Of the $400,000 in grant money received, the amount was almost equally divided between the two entities. Because of the in-kind work, in Nephi's case, $32,000 should cover four projects.
"Ideally, we would have had an engineer help," said Woodland. "Initially, I was told that the engineering would not be paid by the grant."
Therefore, he said, he had sought the help of local contractors to assist. Two of the bidding contractors had helped put together the specs for the city and for the county.
This was done with the understanding that the contractors would have to bid to the specs in competition with all other bidders, he said.
Later, said Woodland, he discovered that the city and county would have been able to claim engineering fees as part of the grant but, since the rules had been modified a few times, that had not been known at first.
Brent Bowles, council member, said he thought that it was "ridiculous" that the state historical society could make demands that would jeopardize the ability of the city to use grant money to replace windows in the Old Gym.
If the windows to be replaced must follow the same historic look of the original it would mean that the work would need to be custom and would cost more than the grant would allow.
"You only have to follow their rules if you use their money," said Randy McKnight.
If the council would like to keep that project aside, they could spend city money to do the work and would not have to follow the same guidelines.
However, if there were bids that were over the allotted amount or if there are no bids on the window project, then Woodland said he would go back to the SHIPO, State Historic Preservation Officer, and find out what could be done.
"I think the gas department and the Old Gym have frightened away some potential bidders," said Woodland.
Along with the projects, council members reviewed the bids they had received on those projects. Bids were entered by Central Electric Supply for the city hall and police department lighting update project.
Lighting replacement for the Old Gym, the electric department, the gas department and the street department buildings had bids from CES Electrical, Westland Electric and Any Tech Electric.
The cooling and heating projects at city hall, the police department, electric department, the road department and the airport buildings received bids by Taurus Plumbing, Reliable Heating and Air, Central Valley Mechanical and Hones Temperature Control.
Bids on the window replacement projects had not yet been opened and were not yet due.
Bids on the cooling and heating projects were tabled until next council meeting.
