Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By P.J. GLISSON
Bessemer — Although most of the snow has melted from the season’s first winter storm on Oct. 17, the weather event certainly made clear that the road construction season is coming to a halt.
Monday evening’s Bessemer City Council meeting addressed that pending closure, while also discussing related issues that have occurred during this year’s leg of a 3-year project replacing water and sewer lines and addressing related road restoration.
The discussion started with a Bessemer resident’s complaint and ended with the council questioning engineers from C2AE — the project overseers — regarding increases in related expenses.
City Manager Charly Loper read aloud a letter from Kellie Ellsworth. “My road off Glyuna Street in Yale has been tore up over and over again for the last month and a half,” stated Ellsworth.
She added later in the same letter, “Countless times our vehicles have gotten stuck in the road with all the ruts that were left, and now our vehicles are left stranded at our home with no way out, my husband’s work vehicle included. That is money out of our pocket each day we cannot get his van out and working on jobs.”
Ellsworth concluded that she is “beyond frustrated” and wants the city to resolve the issue.
The council voted to accept and file the letter and then requested feedback from subcontractor Jake Novascone, owner of Jake’s Excavating & Landscaping in Ironwood, and Darren Pionk, project manager of C2AE.
“We had to tear apart the road three times,” said Pionk, explaining that water and sewer issues had to be addressed on the site at different times.
Pionk assured, however, “The road will actually be built to a stronger standard in the end.”
Subcontractor Jake Novascone said he spoke with Ellsworth and expected to work at the site again this week in hopes of closing it out for the season, with paving planned for next year.
Councilman Terry Kryshak asked Novascone to update Ellsworth again. “We’ve got to be responsive,” he said, noting that the Ellsworths should be helped to move their vehicle off the property if needed.
In terms of any other elements of the project that cannot be finished this fall, Kryshak added, “Let’s just be up front with people.”
Councilman Rob Coleman asked about the status of overall paving, and Novascone said, “They’re done.”
Other roads that will not be paved until spring include Woolsey, the upper side of Tilden and one lane of a 2-block section of Eli Avenue, plus some intersections.
Novascone said waiting until spring for those roads will assure a “better product in the end.” He added that extra gravel had been added as needed to keep the roads secure until they are paved.
Mayor Adam Zak asked whether the men had any concerns about erosion and run-off in relation to unpaved areas. Neither Pionk, Heidbrier nor Neal Nelson, lead of Bessemer’s Public Works Department, voiced any anticipated problems.
“I took a ride around town yesterday, and things were actually looking pretty good,” said Coleman, who added that he hadn’t been as optimistic in the prior week.
The council also voted to accept and file a map from C2AE on the current road status.
Council members also grilled Pionk and Kelly Heidbrier, a C2AE municipal engineer, about increases in expenses relating to this year’s water, sewer and road project.
Most of the inquiries related to an increase of $80,450 in water project expenses and a hike of $58,250 in sewer project expenses.
Kelly said the increases related primarily to changes the city had requested, as with — as just two examples — the expansion of the Tilden Road work and an additional undercut on Barber Street.
Pionk added that all changes had been cleared with Loper and Nelson. Moreover, he claimed, “I think they’ve all been warranted.”
The council voted to approve the cost increases, but Mayor Adam Zak warned that the city needs to be “more careful” hereon about securing estimates before okaying extra work.
The council also voted to approve the following requests by C2AE:
—a wastewater change order of $4,733.99;
—a wastewater payment of $3,135;
—a water draw request of $600,365.92;
—a wastewater draw request of $397,545.27; and
—a Drinking Water State Revolving Fund request of $61,222.
In other news relating to C2AE, the council also voted to pay $15,000 to the firm to prepare a grant application in relation to the DWSRF program within the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
The motion included contingencies to add the CWSRF — Clean Water State Revolving Fund — as well as an agreement to pay an additional $15,000 if the application successfully secures funds.
Millions of grant funds could be at stake, according to Pionk, Heidbrier and Loper.
In a related letter to the city, Pionk stated that one possible use for grant funds would be to replace the Bluffview Reservoir or to reroute the Prospect Road water transmission line, which currently interferes with the reservoir’s capacity to reach full volume.
During the meeting, the council also discussed the possibility of replacing other city water and sewer lines.
Pionk said the city has a greater chance of securing the grant at this time because EGLE changed eligibility terms from a “disadvantaged community” to an “overburdened community,” and, he added, “It looks like you’re going to fall in the overburdened community status.”
The mayor asked what responsibilities may occur in relation to matching fund requirements, or whether such large projects could result in the city needing even higher water rates.
Pionk could not answer definitively, but he was optimistic about generous funding prospects. He and Loper also emphasized the fact that the type of grant potential now available — which Kryshak said relates to the federal infrastructure bill — will not necessarily be a future option.
Pionk assured that, if a grant is issued, the city will have the right to accept or reject it.
He concluded that C2AE will submit an “intent-to-apply” notice by the Nov. 1 EGLE deadline.
