Council moves forward with Crosswalk Project

CRESCO - At the April 3 Cresco City Council meeting, members learned the 7th St. W. Reconstruction Project was going to be $280,000 higher than originally estimated, and the bids haven’t been opened on that project yet.

Then at the April 17 meeting, they learned the Crosswalk Project, which includes sidewalks on N. Elm St., had just one bidder at the opening on April 6, Wicks Construction of Decorah. That bid came in around $440,000 higher than estimated, from $711,800 to $1,152,600.

Engineer Scott Huneke of WHKS said, “We feel this bid was high. We’ve been in contact with Wicks to see if they can come down on prices. The majority of the extra cost is concrete.” Some of the other extras are things Wicks agreed to let the City employees handle.

Council person Gary Kriener said, “Rumor has it there is going to be a pretty substantial increase in the cost of concrete the first of July.” Huneke agreed it probably has something to do with it. 

Bouska said, “I’d really like to see the 7th St. bid before we vote on this. If 7th St. is estimated at $3.5 million and bids come in one-third higher, when is the point when we say we can’t do both of them?” She added if she had to choose between the two projects, she wasn’t sure which one she would choose.

Kriener noted, “There’s lots of handwork and detail and manual labor on the downtown project. The 7th Ave. W. project is mostly heavy equipment.”

Huneke explained there are five phases, with each taking three weeks, so it would be about four months.

Council voted 4-1 (Bouska voting nay) to move forward with the project.