Robertsdale Council awards bids for Garrett Park baseball field project

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ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — The Robertsdale City Council approved a bid approving concrete work the city’s baseball field project at Garrett Park during the council’s meeting on Monday, Aug. 19.

Bids were opened on the project Aug. 15 and the council unanimously awarded the contract to Parten-Smith Inc. of Mobile at a cost of $65,740.

Bid specifications called for the construction of approximately 1,730 square yards of 4-inch-thick concrete surface.

The work consists of, but is not limited to forming, pouring and finishing, as needed. The bidding contractor will perform all the work with the names of all subcontractors to be submitted prior to the beginning of the work, according to bid specifications, which were published in the Aug. 7 edition of Gulf Coast Media.

At its July 15 meeting, Public Works Director Scott Gilbert gave the council an update on the construction of the new ballfields.

Gilbert also asked the council to consider purchasing bleacher covers for all the city’s ballfields. When the new fields are completed the city will have a total of four baseball and four softball fields at the complex.

To provide covers for all the bleachers, the city would need to purchase 16 covers at a cost of $7,200. If the city installs the bleacher covers themselves, which would require cutting a hole in the concrete to set the metal posts for the cover, it will cost the city a total of $116,000. Contracting out the installation would cost the city an additional $72,000.

The covers would be set up so they can easily be removed when not in use, but are wind rated to 142 miles per hour, Gilbert said.

In other business, the council voted to allow a purchasing agent to negotiate for fencing work on the project after no bids were submitted for the Aug. 15 bid opening.

The bid specifications for the project called for the installation of chain link fencing for two baseball fields, along with installation of posts, fence material and finishes, as needed.

In other business Aug. 19, the council approved a transportation plan to use an estimated $29,745 in revenues anticipated from the Rebuild Alabama Act fund during the 2020 fiscal year.

The act, which was signed into law on March 12 by the State Legislature, increases the gasoline and undyed diesel excise taxes by 6 cents per gallon affective Sept. 1. An additional 2-cent tax will be levied beginning Oct. 1 of 2020 and 2021 with additional tax adjustments, not to exceed 1-cent per gallon, to be levied effective Oct. 1, 2023 and every other year thereafter on July 1.

Municipalities and county governments throughout the state will receive funding through the tax levy for roadway improvements, repairs, resurfacing, reconstruction or maintenance. The funds could also be used as match monies for any state or federal grant funded projects to perform roadway improvements, repairs, resurfacing, reconstruction or maintenance.

The Rebuild Alabama Act requires all municipalities to pass a resolution by Aug. 31 submitting a transportation plan, but the plan can be amended throughout the fiscal year.

“This is strictly for the additional gas tax monies passed by the state,” Mayor Charles Murphy told council members. “We have additional gas tax funds that have already been earmarked for road improvements which will be included in our next fiscal year budget.”

The council will hold a special work session beginning at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 3 to discuss the fiscal budget for 2019-20, which begins Oct. 1.

Also on Aug. 19, the council:

•Agreed to assist Robertsdale High School in the maintenance at J.D. Sellars football stadium with an annual donation of $15,000. The maintenance agreement offsets the fact that the city does not have its own facilities for football and uses J.D. Sellars Stadium for its youth football program.

•Adopted revised procedures for Distributed Generation Interconnect maintenance in order for residents to be able to use alternate power sources such as wind or solar.

•Approved a request from Robertsdale Elementary School PTO President Sam Lewandowski to use the city’s digital billboard to advertise the school’s Spirit Night, which is held the third Thursday of every month at Willy T’s. The public is invited to participate in Spirit Night, in which a portion of the proceeds from the night’s purchases will benefit the RES PTO program.