Wittenberg accepts bid for street repairs

The village of Wittenberg has accepted a bid to repair roads in the community.

Work needs to be done to repave and update three roads, Cherry Street, Vinal Street and College Avenue. Three bids were discussed from three different companies, with American Asphalt being awarded the bid.

The bid came in at $16,521 for College Avenue, $50,660.40 for Cherry Street and $15,233.80 for Vinal Street.

A representative from American Asphalt, who was in attendance at the meeting, explained that he added a deduction to Vinal Street and College Avenue if all of the projects were awarded to them.

“If everyone goes to them, that one (Vinal Street) has a deduct of $2,800,” said Wittenberg Village Board President Bill Switalla. “College has a deduct of $1,800.”

In total, the combined deduction totals $4,600 and the overall price of the bid comes to $77,815.20.

One bid from RC Pavers came in at a grand total of $48,610, while another bid from Northeast Asphalt came in at $103,110.

After a brief discussion, the board decided to eliminate Northeast Asphalt’s bid from deliberation. A question then arose from board trustee, Paul Yaeger on why RC Pavers’ bid was far cheaper than American Asphalt’s bid.

“There is a $30,000 difference,” added board trustee Marlene Wepner.

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t do the one that is $30,000 cheaper,” said Yaeger.

After getting information that American Asphalt was planning on using three inches for the thickness of asphalt in the road repairs, members of the board noticed that RC Pavers had two inches in their bid.

Wittenberg Village Clerk Traci Matsche said that they made a mistake when they sent an advertisement in the newspaper.

“In the paper, we advertised two inches by mistake,” said Matsche.

At the time of the printing, the village called American Asphalt to amend the mistake by telling them three inches. They did not call RC Pavers though, due to the belief that they were not going to bid on these projects.

“That’s the reason it is cheaper,” said Yaeger.

The board then discussed how they should proceed with the next step.

“I don’t know if you can redo it and wait a longer amount of time when you have bids and set a deadline,” said Yaeger. “That, I think you would have a bigger problem with.”

Yaeger added that the board should go with American Asphalt because they bid for what the board was asking for.

The tentative date to finish road repairs would be late summer around the end of August.

Board trustees Theresa Gatz and Barb Buchholz said that they would rather see it done by the end of August so that it does not interfere with school.

“That would be nice to have it done before school,” said Gatz.

“I would like to have it done by the end of August, because once you have school, you will have school buses driving on those roads,” added Buchholz.

With board trustees Renee Switalla and David Timm absent, the proposal was approved unanimously.

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com