By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The bid for reconstruction of 13th Street between Main and Milner with one additional alternate was approved 3-2 by Hays City Commissioners during their Thursday night meeting.
APAC, Kansas, Inc, Hays, was the low bidder in the amount of $2,067,710.
Outgoing commissioner Kent Steward went against staff recommendation and moved to do the project with all five alternates, at an additional cost of $402,075.
“In improving 13th Street–which is one of the main access points to downtown–that will last for 50, 60, 70 years, that is not at all extravagant to do it well so that we continue to enhance the character of our downtown,” Steward said. The motion failed 1-4.
Selecting any of the alternates required additional funding from the City Commission Reserve Fund.
The other outgoing commissioner Ron Mellick didn’t like that, adding that “we have to live within our means.”
“We had to say ‘no’ to a lot of things the past 15 years to get to a ‘pay as you go’ policy–living within a budget.”
“I’d like to do this, and I voted for having all of it engineered, but we know what the budget is. This money is going to affect things next year and in the following years. It’s going to affect the mill levy and everybody wants to keep the mill levy to a certain place. If we do this, we’re going to throw away everything we have done in the past 10 years,” Mellick said.
The approved project–Alternate A with Additional Alternate 2–includes removing and replacing the driving lanes, replacement of the parking lanes, curb and gutter, driveways, and sidewalk between the intersections, reconstructing the intersections, replacing storm sewer inlets, pipe and structures, all new water service, and installing brick-lined crosswalks at all intersections.
The additional alternates not selected were brick street pavers, decorative street lighting and a historical monument base.
Mellick suggested that “other groups might want to raise the capital for the alternates.”
A public informational meeting about the 13th Street reconstruction will be held Tuesday, March 10, at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.