M R Paving's bid for improvements

comes in low

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The City Council had only one bid to consider for 2004 utility, street and alley improvements -- Group I Tuesday, but it was easy to approve because it cut $638, 215 off the estimated cost.

"If we only have one bid, that's the kind of bid to have," said Acting Council President Ron Fleischmann.

The bid by M R Paving & Excavating, Inc., of New Ulm was 27.7 percent below engineer's estimate. Tlhat means the city will have over $600,000 to cover unexpected overruns in its 2004 capital improvement program. Or the city can carry over that amount to offset next year's bonding needs, City Clerk/Treasurer Reginald Vorwerk said.

Because the bonding amount approved by the city council is under $5 million, there's no time-line to be met in spending the money or any penalty, he said.

The project was estimated to cost $2,305,801.50 by the city engineer's office. M R Paving's bid totaled $1,667,585.71.

In analyzing the bid, City Engineer Steven Koehler said he found four earthwork items accounted for $365,000 of the difference while "the remainder of the difference was generally dispersed throughout the project bid items."

The council found two items to debate. One involved approving a Job Opportunity Building Zone business agreement with New Ulm Precision Tool, Inc. The other was whether an event promoter should be allowed to have a helicopter land either on German Park or near the park.

JOBZ

Councilor Clark Tuttle thought that there should be more requirements, particularly in job creation, built into the city's agreement with New Ulm Precision Tool like those contained in the city's loan agreement with Beacon Promotions.

However, Councilor Sharon Weinkauf saw a difference between an agreement where the city is lending money to a business and one where the only loss to the city was in property taxes over a 12-year period.

The council approved the agreement allowing staff and City Attorney Hugh Nierengarten to "fill in the blanks," make minor changes in language and work out any undefined parts of the agreement and set a public hearing on the agreement for 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 6.

Copter landing

Ron Baker's request to have city approval for landing a helicopter in German Park for his Starlight Moonlight vehicle show and festival July 31 hit bumpy air briefly as councilors questioned landing the helicopter in the park rather than nearby.

After some discussion, the council approved allowing the helicopter to land "in the vicinity" of German Park, providing the helicopter's owner and operator showed proof of "at least $2 million" in liability insurance and Baker worked with city staff to determine a suitable landing site, most likely the Mueller Park parking lot.

LGA cuts

A request by the League of Minnesota Cities to support a call for a special legislative session to address an apparent oversight by the 2003 Legislature in approving Local Government Aid cuts was received and filed.

The league said it was the Legislature's intent to eliminate "grandfathered aid (the city aid base)" from the formula. However, the 2004 Legislature did not address the issue, and now Gov. Tim Pawlenty is going to follow the letter of the legislation if a special session isn't called, the league said.

This would mean a loss of another $240,000 in 2005, City Manager Brian Gramentz said. However, he said he was recommending a "wait-and-see" posture on the part of the council at the present time.