Barren Fork Greenway bid way too high

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

BROWN

Only one bid came in for the Barren Fork Greenway project and that bid was too high, city officials said in deliberations of the Parks and Recreation Committee Monday.

At about $751,000, the bid was significantly higher than what officials had planned to spend on the first phase of the proposed 3/4-mile trail located between Riverfront and Pepper Branch parks, as well as sidewalks that connect the trail to different areas of town.

An alternative version of the bid was about $859,000 for an additional handicapped-accessible ramp for McMinnville Residential Care Center, which is located between the parks on the river.

The city received a grant from the state for $439,100 that required a local match of 20 percent, or $109,775, making the project total $548,875.

After a lengthy administrative process which exceded a year and the hiring of an engineering firm to assemble bid documents in January, Parks and Recreation Director Carlene Brown and other officials indicated disappointment.

Committee Chairman Donald Hillis and Alderman Jimmy Bonner rejected the lone bid.

Brown said potential bidders wanted more time to complete the project, if awarded, as one reason why she believed more didn’t bid on construction. She added the amount of completion time contributed to higher costs.

Officials said there are a number of alternatives, including re-bidding the project, exploring a division of the project between contractors and the city to reduce costs or looking at the possibility of the city building the entire project alone.

Brown said officials on Tuesday discussed re-bidding the project in two divisions and discussed the possibility of the city constructing the sidewalks if bids are too high.

She said the bidding process is expected to take several weeks and construction won’t be started the second week in September as was estimated.

“It delays the whole process by about six weeks,” Brown added.