OCEAN CITY — Bids were opened for several ongoing capital projects, and while there are options in each case that are under what was budgeted, the bids were all over the map.
The Mayor and Council on Tuesday opened multiple bids for three capital projects including repainting the municipal water tower at 94th Street, a new uninterruptable power source (UPS) system at the Public Safety Building and the town’s annual street paving cycle. In each case, multiple bids were received and at least one option came in under what was budgeted. In other cases, the disparity in the bids was significantly wide.
For the repainting of the water tower at 94th Street, the project was budgeted at $350,000. The low bid was $238,000, while the high bid was $859,000. There were also two other bids submitted, including one at $367,000 and another at $809,000. The council voted unanimously to remand the bids to staff for review and a recommendation.
Council Secretary Tony DeLuca, who opened the bids with City Manager Doug Miller, jokingly took the opportunity to bring up one of his old pet projects.
“This is a golf ball on a tee with the Eagle’s Landing logo right? he said. “Just to clarify.”
Councilman Mark Paddack asked why there was a part A and a part B in the bid package. Water Superintendent Howard Iman explained the different sections.
“Basically, part A is to paint the outside,” he said. “If you’ve seen the outside of the tank, you can see rust stains coming through. The rest of the items were put in there if we were lucky enough on the bids.”
Iman said once painted, the 94th Street water tower will be adorned again with the Art League’s logo.
“The Art League generally asks that their logo be put on it,” he said. “They pay for that themselves.”
The street paving bids were even more spread apart. The town budgeted $2.5 million this fiscal year, of which $765,000 comes from casino revenue and another $642,000 from state highway user revenue. The balance comes from the town’s general fund, or a little over $1 million.
The low bid from street paving came in at around $550,000, while the high bid was over $1.1 million. There was another bid at $556,000 and a couple in the $600,000 range. As far as the bids for the UPS system at the Public Safety Building, the project was estimated at $110,000. The low bid was around $85,000, while the high bid came in at over $128,000.
