Council approves Memorial Circle funding

CLINTONVILLE – Funding for reconstructing a portion of Memorial Circle was approved by the Clintonville Common Council, with the cost not to exceed $260,731.
The approval came at the council’s June 9 meeting, and also included delaying two projects in order to use the funds designated for those two projects for the Memorial Circle project.
The city received two bids for the project. The bids were submitted by Sommers Construction Company, Inc. located in Shiocton and Northeast Asphalt Inc. located in Greenville. The low bid of $260,731 was submitted by Sommers Construction, but was $99,529 over the project’s budget.
In a June 3 memo from Clintonville Public Works Director Justin Mc Auly to the council, Mc Auly stated, “Estimates for the Capital project derived from the engineer prior to design and onsite inspections by the engineer. As we moved forward there were a lot of hidden expenses that drove the cost of the project over budget.”
Because the bid was over budget, Mc Auly recommended that two projects could be pushed back to the city’s next borrowing cycle. He said the city could use $65,000 designated for a pickleball court project and $50,000 from the State Highway 22/North Lyons Street resurfacing project.

“That’s something that we’ve been maintaining every year and I feel confident we can do that into the next borrowing cycle,” Mc Auly said.
The Memorial Circle project would include work from 11th Street through the bridge deck, Mc Auly said. The street would be narrowed to the city’s standard 34-feet width. Parallel parking would replace the angled parking that currently exists on the west side of the street. Some curb and gutter would be added on the side of the street nearest to W.A. Olen Park to help direct waterflow to the river.
Ald. Brandon Braden asked if the bids for the project were obtained after the flooding issues the city experienced in April.
Mc Auly said bids for the project were requested two times because the first time the city received bids for the project, the bids came in $30,000-$40,000 higher than the bids obtained in the second round of bids.
“We ended up going back and doing some adjustments when we went back out to bid,” Mc Auly said. “So, this was actually done after the flooding.”
Mc Auly added that some of the flood damage to Memorial Circle was submitted to FEMA for possible disaster reimbursement.
Council President Greg Rose said when people look at the “public face” of the city the city should look its best to visitors.
“Somewhat ironically, our worst two sections of roads are in front of our biggest two parks,” Rose said. “…So, even though this one is over budget, we absolutely have to do this.”