SALYERSVILLE – The Salyersville City Council met in regular session on Monday, April 20, discussing a contractor for the landscaping project and road funding.
The council approved to pay the City of Salyersville and Salyersville Water Works bills, with relatively little discussion regarding either.
The council reviewed a recommendation letter from Bell Engineering, recommending CPR Construction, LLC, as the contractor for the Salyersville Mountain Parkway Landscape Project. According to the letter, they received two bids – CPR’s bid came in at $751,233, and Codell Construction’s at $1,265,159.50. Bell’s letter noted CPR’s bid appeared to be complete and they reached out to two references. A Big Sandy ADD representative explained that CPR’s bid came roughly $250,000 under budget, so they would negotiate pricing on adding back some things that had been removed from the plans (more trees, signage, etc.), and can approve change orders as necessary. The council agreed to award the bid to CPR, and the work will be warrantied for one year after completion.
Big Sandy ADD explained that the $250,000 extra can only be used for this project, as allocated, and cannot be reallocated to other projects.
The city council also approved to pay an $8,000 invoice to Big Sandy ADD for environmental review on the beautification project, which had already been included in the budget for the project.
Mayor Stanley Howard explained he had turned in roughly 15 roads for Local Assistance Road Program Funding (LARP), and the state had ranked each road by needs, and the sections of roads ranking the worst were awarded funding for blacktopping, as follows:
– Sugar Camp Rd. – $19,000
– Allen Drive – $15,900
– Conley Street – $6,100
– Flint Street – $10,400
– Henry Arnett Br. – $16,000
The roads are turned in by the mayor, the funds are awarded by the state, with council members unable to decide which roads are awarded.
Councilman Paul Montgomery pointed out, “You know what look’s bad here?”
Mayor Howard said, “My road’s on it?”
“And Thomas’s,” Council Member Pat Frazier added, referring to the mayor’s brother’s road.
Howard said his road is “impassable, just about.”
The LARP projects require a 10% match from the city.
Montgomery, who also voiced concerns of how low the allocation for Conley Street was, noting it couldn’t blacktop everything that is in disarray, said, “I hate to vote against this because of the ones on here that need it really bad, but I just don’t like this system. I don’t agree with it, but I’m not going to vote to withhold help for the folks up Sugar Camp, either.”
In Monday’s meeting, the council did not vote on accepting the money for the projects, with Howard stating they will vote on it when the state adopts the budget.
Howard also updated the council on the generator project, stating it’s almost ready to go, waiting on one more letter from FEMA, he said.
Regarding the sewer grant, the engineers are still preparing the contract documents and bid package for the project, with the sign of grant agreement received last week from the Department for Local Government, and they have the release of funds, both of which were required for the contracts, according to Big Sandy ADD.
Howard said that when they checked the lift stations, some of the concrete was eroded, noting they have a specialist coming in to check the concrete and the wet wells to determine how it could affect the sewer repair project. He estimated two more weeks to get that information before they can bid out the whole project.
The city’s spring cleanup starts next Monday, April 27, through May 8.
Interestingly, the agenda for the meeting noted that there would be no public comments, which is not legally required, but is the first known time public comments being excluded from a regular meeting.
Mayor Howard said he just excluded public comments because it was such a “busy” meeting.
As such, a small group of protesters set up outside of city hall to voice their concerns regarding transparency, with their chants audible during the meeting.
The next regularly scheduled Salyersville City Council meeting is tentatively set for May 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Salyersville City Hall.
