WORKING WITH THE TOWNSHIP ON THE RRK FARMS ISSUE … Councilor Chris Kannel reports on the meeting with the Superior Township Trustees. (PHOTO BY TIM KAYS, STAFF)
By: Tim Kays
The February 22 meeting of the Montpelier Village Council saw the acceptance and awarding of an $87,440.00 bid for the 2021 Village Asphalt Project.
Morlock Asphalt, Ltd. of Portage, Ohio, submitted a bid of $87,440.00 on the five-part asphalting project that carries an engineer’s estimate of $96,390.00.
There were six firms bidding on the project, with Morlock being the lowest of the three that came in below the engineer’s estimate. The companies bidding and their bids were…
Morlock Asphalt, Ltd. Portage, OH -$87,440.00; M&M Asphalt Edon, OH-$90,472.90; Bryan Excavating Bryan, OH-$95,981.20; Henry W. Bergman Genoa, OH-$112,544.40; Gerken PavingNapoleon, OH-$116,957.20; Geddis Paving and ExcavatingToledo, OH-$120,490.60
The five areas of work to be covered under the 2021 project include… 800-1200 Block of Delaware Avenue; 800 Block of East Jefferson Street; Bungalow Court; 400 Block of Columbia Street; Larkspur Place.
“They came in a little less than $10,000 under the engineer’s estimate,” said Village Manager Jason Rockey of the Morlock bid.
Councilor Don Schlosser asked if the village had ever employed Morlock in the past, to which Rockey replied, “No, we have not, but Kurt (Roan) did a little research this week and followed up on some of the other work that they have done, so we’re pretty confident that they can handle…our work.”
Rockey estimated that the deadline for the project is the end of October, but he wanted to get the bids in as soon as possible to accommodate for an anticipated rush.
“There’s a three-year project that’s going to happen up on the Turnpike, and the asphalt plant on State Route 15 is going to be substantially dedicated to that project. That’s why we wanted to have a big enough window to secure a decent bid, and they can do it at their discretion.”
“They coordinate that with the asphalt plant, but we knew there was going to be conflicts, so we wanted to give them plenty of time to be able to do that.”
Rockey reported on the bidding for concrete crushing, saying, “We did have another bid opening for concrete crushing last Wednesday.”
“We received multiple bids for that. We do have some questions for the bidders on those; they all did not provide the same detailed information.”
“So, before we’re comfortable awarding that bid, we need to talk to a couple of the bidders and clarify a couple of things, get some things in writing, and hopefully by the next meeting we’ll have a proposal to bring to you.”
“The bids varied quite a bit,” he continued. “This year we do have…I think $50,000 budgeted for concrete crushing, and there were a number of bids under that amount.”
“I am comfortable that we’re going to get the remaining concrete and asphalt that we have out on Brown Road…crushed. We just need to ask a few more questions in order to be comfortable with selecting that contractor.”
“Specifically, there was one bid that was quite a bit lower than the others.”
“Kurt called them, asking questions pertaining to their bid, because it did lack some of that information. So we want to get a few of those answers in writing before we do that and make sure that we’re selecting the right contractor.”
Mr. Rockey gave an update on the proposed RRK Farms land acquisition. That property is the bottom ground off of Mill Street that the village and the Black Swamp Conservancy have been working to acquire.
At the February 8 meeting, Council learned that the proposed acquisition of a 122-acre tract of land was being held up by the Superior Township trustees.
At that time, Rockey reported that he, Councilor Chris Kannel and Austin Poynter met with the Superior Township Trustees meeting that afternoon, and reported that, “…the trustees are unwilling to sign the resolution which would approve the village acquisition of the RRK property.”
On this night, Mr. Rockey reported, “We’ve decided that we’re going to hold off on grant application. That’s in cooperation with Black Swamp Conservancy. They’re aware of the issues that we’re having locally, and some of the comments that are being made publicly regarding the project.”
“We don’t feel that we’ve necessarily done our due diligence in getting accurate information out to the public.”
“So in an effort to be completely transparent and to make sure everybody understands what the property would be used for, where the money is coming from, how the price was negotiated all those kind of things, we’re just going to press pause on the project.”
“Black Swamp Conservancy secured a two-year agreement with RRK Farms in order that we would have two opportunities to make grant application.”
“The application window is open from November to the first part of March, and we were kind of late to the table in that. We were kind of trying to rush an application in order to meet that March deadline, and in doing so we didn’t have enough public conversations about the project.”
“So we want to go back have those conversations, make sure people get good information, and they’re not basing any objections and support on rumors and hearsay.”
“We would like them to make application when the opportunity opens back up come early November ‘21. Hopefully we can get the information out there, people can be comfortable with that, and know completely what’s going on.”
Councilor Chris Kannel added, “I think the one thing to add is that the Township Trustees have expressed an interest in working together with the village to come to the best possible solution.”
“And those of us that have been working pretty closely on this project, that seems like a really advantageous position for the village to be in, if we have the Trustees alongside.”
“So we’re excited about the possibility of building a collaborative relationship with the Trustees in order to move this project and future projects forward.”
Speaking on the parks, Rockey made serious note of a potential situation referencing the pool. With 2021 program guides due to roll out around April 1, Rockey said, “I would put out a request that’s kind of a plea. We’ve only had, I think, three applications for lifeguards.”
“We have every intention of opening the pool this year, as long as the State says we can do that, but that won’t be possible without lifeguards.” Rockey said that there was also a very limited number of applications for concession stand workers.
“It requires nine (lifeguards) to open,” Rockey said. “I think Don (Brown) had somewhere between 16 and 18 lifeguards going into last year, so to only get three applications is very worrisome.”
“Obviously if it takes nine lifeguards to open, we need more than nine lifeguards in order to fill those positions and fill all those time slots.”
“So if that can’t happen, then we would have to do much more limited hours at the pool, and wouldn’t be able to be open the full amount of time that it normally is.”
“So we’re hoping to get more responses for those openings. I believe there’s a lifeguard training class on spring break.”
“This year I believe Bryan spring break and Montpelier Spring Break are the same week, and traditionally the Bryan YMCA has offered a lifeguard training class during Bryan’s spring break. So we’re hoping to have that available too.”
Those interested in applying for lifeguard or concession stand positions can call the village office at 419-485-5549, or the Parks Department at 419-485-3496. Employment applications can also be completed online at https://nebula.wsimg.com/d02e5e05578dad7091a7cbfbdc125f7f?AccessKeyId=69BC06C2FBD506FE3B43&disposition=0&alloworigin=1
Council retired into executive session to discuss employee compensation. Upon returning to open session, Council approved a revision to the police manual referencing pay for employees that are called up to active military service.
“Ohio Revised Code says Council has the authority to pay a deployed employee more than Ohio Revised Code,” Rockey said in a phone conversation later, “…but it takes Council action to do that.”
“They elected to do that tonight. It was basically a little bit of a benefit to (recently deployed Police Chief) Dan McGee for his time on deployment here.”
“It will be recorded in our policy manual, so all employees going forward that happen to be deployed will be treated the same as was what Dan is.”
Tim can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com