Agenda - Council - 10/08/2019 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Notice for this Assessment Hearing was published in the City's official newspaper, the Anoka Union Herald, on Friday, September 20, 2019. Assessment Hearing Notices were also mailed to all benefiting property owners as required by Minnesota Statute Chapter 429. A copy of Statute 429 is attached to this case, as is a copy of the Notice mailed to benefiting property owners. Anoka County requires that assessments be certified to the County Auditor by November 15, 2019 for collection on 2020 taxes. Property owners must therefore prepay their special assessments in full by November 15, 2019 to avoid paying interest. Observations/Alternatives: Observations: Construction of this project is substantially complete. Only punch list work remains, which will be completed next spring or summer. As is standard practice on street reconstruction projects, the City will not issue final payment to the contractor until the following year to allow punch list work to be completed during next year's growing season. Most property owner concerns are related to grading and turf establishment so final payment is withheld until the following summer or fall so such concerns can be addressed. Staff has received several complaints and concerns from property owners related to the ditch grading, each of which will be addressed in detail next spring. A letter was mailed to property owners recently explaining this so they understand the City will be out on site again next spring to address their concerns before closing the project out. Alternatives: Alternative #1 — Adopt Resolution #19-236 adopting the final assessment roll certifying assessments for Improvement Project #19-01, Ford Brook Estates Street Reconstructions. Alternative #2 — Deny adoption of Resolution #19-236 at this time. Funding Source: Project Costs On May 14, 2019, the City Council accepted bids and awarded a construction contract to Asphalt Surface Technologies (ASTECH) of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, per their low bid of $262,503.25. This bid included $249,901.55 for the base bid, plus $12,601.70 for the alternate bid to expand the cul-de-sac to allow school buses to pick students up in the cul-de-sac instead of on Highway 47. Street reconstruction project costs include construction costs plus 23% indirect costs for administrative (6%), engineering (15%), finance (1%), and legal (1%) costs. After adding 23% to the contractor's construction bid, the contracted project cost is $322,879.00. The engineer's project cost estimate based on final plans was $248,137.19 therefore the contracted project cost was $78,833.72, or 30.1 percent, higher than the engineer's estimate of project costs. When preparing engineer's estimates, Staff uses unit bid prices from recent projects, then adjusts the unit prices for inflation based on the latest available information. The intent is for the engineer's estimate to fall within the middle of bids received, which has been the norm in recent years. However, bids received this year were significantly higher than the engineer's estimates. Bid prices for this project were significantly higher for mobilization ($18,000), bituminous pavement ($12,867), and concrete work ($8,262). Other cities also experienced higher bid prices this year, particularly on bituminous and concrete pay items. Staff worked with the contractor to calculate final construction costs for this project, which were used to calculate final project costs to determine final assessments. Final construction costs are $263,341.85 and final project costs are $323,910.48. This means final project costs were 30.54% greater than the engineer's estimate of project costs. Per Council direction from September loth, staff increased the preliminary assessment amount of $3,919.90 by 30.54% to arrive at final assessments of $5,116.90