Bid awarded for cemetery paving project; revisits proposal to asphalt gravel streets

The Lenox City Council postponed approving a bid for the pool project, awarded contract for paving at North Fairview Cemetery and moved one step closer to paving gravel streets at their June 8 meeting.

A public hearing was held at the beginning of the council meeting for forms and specifications for the Lenox Pool project. No written or oral comments were received. Allison Kitzman, city administrator, said they received four bids and all about 50% higher than the engineer’s estimate. Bids and the amounts were:

-Building Crafts – $823,500

-Carrothers – $856,000

-Joiner Construction –  $825,500

-Sande Construction – $1,176,724

She asked the council to postpone awarding the contract. Kitzman will work with the engineer and bidders on what to do. Donations and grants total over $700,000 for the pool project.

A second public hearing was held for the cemetery road project. No written or oral comments were received. Eight bids were received for the paving project at North Fairview Cemetery. The lowest bid was from TK Concrete for $255,490.00. Funds will come from a trust that was left for North Fairview Cemetery updates. The engineer had estimated the project to cost $400,190.00. The council approved the low bid.

The council continued conversation on asphalting the gravel streets in town. The mayor wanted all council members present to vote on the project. They have not had a full council since they started talking about the project. Councilperson Staci Beck was not present at this meeting but had been in attendance at previous meetings. Councilpersons Tyler Peterson and Nick Hodges had not been at previous meetings but were present at Monday night’s meeting.