Council rejects bids for water project, grants cost of living raises

            Besides the three city organizational ordinances the council dealt with considerable other business as well at the July 9th meeting.

            One significant discussion was regarding bids for the water enhancement project. A resolution to reject the bids for the project was presented to the council. Director of Public Works Jon DeVries explained that the lowest bid was still 29% over the engineers estimate for the project. He noted, “We just can’t ask taxpayers to pay that much.” The plan is now to split project into two parts with one part starting this fall and another next spring. This is will hopefully allow for more bids and more cost effective ones as construction companies are often booked up with projects for the year already which can drive up costs. The council passed the resolution.

            The council approved various cost of living raises for city staff for the 2020 fiscal year. The wages will go up 2.5% for most full-time, part-time and seasonal staff. The owners of T&S Sanitation appeared before the council to ask the city to rent dumpsters from them rather than other parties. Although T&S maintains most city dumpsters, a few are rented from another company still. Owner Scott Hennigar emphasized that T&S is a local company whereas their competition is not from Clarion. The council was in agreement to switch all dumpsters over to T&S.

Wright County Monitor

P.O. Box 153
Clarion, IA 50525
Phone: 515-532-2871
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