Ignacio town trustees have approved a $6,945 bid to install a guardrail on El Paso hill, but with conditions. They objected to a lack of advance discussion, especially during the budget process last fall.
Town Manager Lee San Miguel presented the bid on Jan. 21. He cited a traffic study commissioned in summer 2013 before he started as town manager and finished in July 2014. The Colorado Department of Transportation Local Agencies Safety Study was paid for with a grant from CDOT. It included El Paso hill.
"We had to wait for a CDOT engineer to look at the stability of the hill," San Miguel said. Then they had to wait for a bid from the single company that installs guardrails for CDOT. Their price is $6,945.
Trustee Cecilia Robbins commented, "I don't remember this being part of the discussion in the budget process" for 2015.
"We got the bid after the budget was approved," San Miguel said. The town has $5,000 budgeted for the work, he said. The additional amount, plus money to fix another guardrail after a car ran into it, will have to come out of $40,000 budgeted for street repairs, he said.
Town Treasurer Lisa Rea advised the town will still need $40,000 for street repairs.
Trustee Tom Atencio objected, "Stuff like this should come up beforehand. We should have had some idea this was coming up."
San Miguel said, "We didn't anticipate getting a bid this year."
Public Works Director James Brown said, "This has been going on for a little over four years." The town was going to install a guardrail two years ago but was advised by its geotechnical company that driving the posts in could cause the hillside to fail.
Atencio then objected that CDOT's guardrail installer company doesn't appear to be bonded. "If that hill shifts... It should be an insured job. We don't know what's going to happen with that hill."
San Miguel said he'd check on the company's bonding.
Mayor Stella Cox asked if this isn't something that should go out for bid.
It's a single source provider, Brown said. If CDOT gets the company going on other projects, "we may have to wait until they are between jobs again," he said. "They have the big machine to pound the posts."
Trustees approved the project contingent on proof that the company is bonded.
Atencio said, "If it's not bonded and (the company) presents a new bid, it has to come to the board. You (San Miguel) don't have authority on your own."
Town Clerk Georgann Valdez added, "Or if it's a different price."
