Carbondale Reporter

Marion City Council approved the sole bid for its water main replacement work in the Square though that bid was a quarter of a million dollars higher than city estimates, Mayor Mike Absher said.

“Hopefully we get more bidders on the rest of this than just one,” Absher said, according to the YouTube recording of the Marion City Council’s May 8 meeting.

The sole bid totaled $969,700, he said. If the council does approve the bid, the amount over what they budgeted for “will come out of the TIF” funds, Absher said, according to the YouTube video.

City Council approved the bid.

Before the approval, the city’s Public Works staff walked the council through the bid and project. They said the bid was reflective of the current market and scope of work, as prices for labor and supplies have risen in the months since they made the initial estimate, according to the YouTube video. They also had more hope for a variety of bids to choose from in the future with more of their streetscape projects. No guarantee of timelines for this project are possible because it is so difficult to be able to order materials and have their deliveries line up, staff said. Some suppliers will sell an order off if not picked up immediately because of a wait for another material. Staff said that they hoped construction would begin late this summer.

Absher also told council that the city’s parking situation would not be greatly disturbed by the entire streetscape project, which will follow after the water main replacement. While they may lose two parking spaces, those spots are at the end of the corridor that are very dangerous to back out of, he said. There is also a potential of adding up to two to three spaces as paving reveals space by the mouths of alleys.

Absher said they were making the best of the space, considering “our square was designed in 1839, and it just doesn't work for today’s traffic patterns very well.”