Two Fort Smith directors surprised about agenda items meant for a study session

Two consent decree projects that the Fort Smith Board of Directors tabled Nov. 4 for a future study session discussion are now on the board’s voting agenda for a special meeting set for Nov. 10. The change has two directors puzzled.

The board on Nov. 4 approved $50.3 million in sewer system improvements mandated by a federal consent decree. The board tabled a $17.741 million project and a $9.111 million contract because they came in significantly higher than the initial cost estimates. Directors Christina Catsavis and Kevin Settle pushed for the two projects to be reviewed at a future study session.

A summary of the board’s Nov. 4 meeting action indicates that the two items were tabled “pending study session discussion.”

The work is targeted toward addressing a federal mandate to fix the city’s sewer system. After decades of failing to maintain the sewer system, officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice filed a consent decree in 2014 with the city of Fort Smith that required certain improvements to the city’s sewer system.

The proposed $17.741 million contract is with Bristow, Okla.-based Timco Blastings and Coatings and is for the “rehabilitation or replacement” of 190 sanitary sewer manholes and 30,000 linear feet of 8-inch and 12-inch diameter sanitary sewer line, according to the city. The work had an initial engineering estimate of $11.084 million.

The proposed $9.111 million contract is with Knoxville, Tenn.-based Morgan Contracting and is for “remediation or replacement” of 12,640 linear feet of sanitary sewer pipes and 130 manholes, according to the city. The initial estimate for the work was $5.191 million.

Larry Yancey, an engineer with Hawkins-Weir Engineers, the firm that provided initial estimates for the work, said in a letter to the city that the bids came in above the estimate because no local firms bid on the work, and “there are specific unit prices on these projects that could not have been predicted based on any historical bid information.”

“Our observation was that the rehabilitation projects that bid early in the process received more bidding interest from local and in-state contractors along with more favorable bids,” Yancey noted.

Directors Christina Catsavis and Kevin Settle told Talk Business & Politics they were surprised that the two projects were on a voting agenda instead of a study session.

“To my knowledge no new information has been presented (about the two projects) and I’m not ready to move forward until it’s discussed at a study session,” Catsavis said Friday after the agenda was posted.

Settle said the board consensus “was clearly to move to a study session” before voting on the two bids.

“I’m not in favor of either one as they are now,” Settle said, adding that the $17.741 million project should be broken into two bids in order for the work to attract bids from local or in-state firms.