Project to go out to bid

By: 
Gray Hughes

Much was accomplished at Monday night’s meeting of the Hill City Common Council

Finance officer Stacia Tallon announced there will be an election this year in Hill City in Ward II. Incumbent Gary Auch filed again and will be opposed by former alderman John Johnson. In Ward I, there will be no election as only one person filed to run, and that was incumbent Carl Doaty.

The Hill City Business Improvement District Board (BID Board) will once again go out to bid.

This project will consist of paving the alleyway, creating handicapped parking spots, making a parking lot, public restrooms and building upgrades at the Hill City Senior Center building.

The plan with the project is to turn that building, which is owned by the city and leased by the senior center for a nominal fee into a community center to host events.

The council rejected a bid for part of the project — renovating the senior center building and adding public restrooms — last month.

City administrator Brett McMacken said he was pleased with the bid process previously.

“We had a really good, competitive bid process last time,” he said.

The cost was the main reason why the previous bid was rejected. With a price tag of $1.1 million for the lowest bid, that bid was not welcomed by the council.

McMacken said there have been meetings to discuss the plans for the project already — including cost-saving measures.

The roof, for example, was a large area of expense. McMacken said with these newest bid plans, the steel roof could be an option along with a less expensive asphalt shingle roof.

McMacken also said that there are plans for more reliable siding that could ultimately be less expensive.

This current bid would lack laying down turf and removing the racquetball courts by the Boys and Girls Club, also a cost-saving measure.

While the council appeared pleased with the plans, some were not.

Connie Wolters, a member of the Hill City Planning and Zoning Commission, said while she supports the senior center, she hasn’t heard any concrete plans for the building itself.

She said there is a solid start to the project, but the other ideas need to be developed before going out to bid.

Alderman Jason Gillaspie said that the other parts of the project could be developed while prepping to go out to bid, as there will be some time before the bid is officially let.

Both McMacken and Tallon said that this project would not come out of emergency funds that the city has, nor will other funds not related to the project be touched.

There were concerns by some in the general public that this was the case; however, McMacken reiterated that this would not happen.

“This is city property we are talking about,” said Hill City mayor Kathy Skorzewski, who was in support of the plans.

She said the project would convert the area into more of an event center rather than housing one institution, Skorzweski said. This would be a net positive for Hill City.

Gillaspie pointed out that the project would, for the most part, be funded by visitors to Hill City’s dollars as much of the project would be funded by the bed, board and booze tax (BBB tax) and BID funds.

Locals contribute to the project, too, through sales tax dollars, Tallon said.

The vote to go out to bid passed 3-0 with alderman Dale Householder recusing himself from discussion and vote due to his involvement with the senior center.

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