Shawnee city commissioners, who said they could understand frustrations felt by citizens regarding delayed storm debris removal near Shawnee Twin Lakes, pushed ahead the process by awarding a contract to the lowest of five bidders prior to further review of those bids.
The decision to grant Arbor Masters Tree Service of Oklahoma City with the contract for the lowest bid, $48,372, was made following a comment by Vice Mayor Frank Sims and an inquiry by City Manager Brian McDougal.
“I’d really like to see this expedited,” Sims said. “We told everybody we’d begin June 7. That was 30 days ago.”
Jennifer Dawson, emergency management technician for the city, said the delay was caused by a late disaster declaration, which wasn’t received until June 11 — about a month after the May 10-13 storms hit the area.
McDougal asked City Attorney John Canavan if the commission could award the bid Monday night instead of delaying it until the next commission meeting, which will be held in two weeks.
Canavan said commissioners could award the bid as long as they understood they were approving it without seeing the budget for the work.
Upon hearing Canavan’s reply, Sims suggested the commission approve the bid “contingent on the bid meeting all our specifications.”
Commissioners — except for James Harrod, who was absent during the meeting — unanimously agreed with the award.
Dawson said the swift action taken by the commission would help expedite the process as Sims hoped.
“If everything is correct with the bid, the clean up could begin within two weeks,” she said. “It saved two weeks because we would’ve had to wait for the next meeting.”
Dawson said the approved bid was much lower than the $120,142 that local, state and federal teams estimated the project would cost after preliminary damage assessments.
Included in the debris removal will be “any vegetative materials — trees or any parts of trees and shrubs, building materials, fencing, white goods, appliances or any other non-vegetative materials damaged or displaced as a direct result of the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes that occurred May 10 through 13.” The debris — including all particles three or more inches — will be removed from all public right of ways and collection, chipping, loading, transporting and disposal of storm debris will be included in the project, according to the contract.
Dawson said debris removal within the city will begin this week, after a slight weather delay prevented crews from removing the debris last week, as scheduled.
She said several people already have removed debris from their properties themselves, “which is good but it gives the false idea to other residents that some debris has been moved off while other homes were skipped.” Dawson said contractors are aware of what debris they are to remove and therefore, residents in the affected “in town” areas may rest assured they have not been skipped and crews will get to them within the next few days.
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Shawnee city commissioners, who said they could understand frustrations felt by citizens regarding delayed storm debris removal near Shawnee Twin Lakes, pushed ahead the process by awarding a contract to the lowest of five bidders prior to further review of those bids.
The decision to grant Arbor Masters Tree Service of Oklahoma City with the contract for the lowest bid, $48,372, was made following a comment by Vice Mayor Frank Sims and an inquiry by City Manager Brian McDougal.
“I’d really like to see this expedited,” Sims said. “We told everybody we’d begin June 7. That was 30 days ago.”
Jennifer Dawson, emergency management technician for the city, said the delay was caused by a late disaster declaration, which wasn’t received until June 11 — about a month after the May 10-13 storms hit the area.
McDougal asked City Attorney John Canavan if the commission could award the bid Monday night instead of delaying it until the next commission meeting, which will be held in two weeks.
Canavan said commissioners could award the bid as long as they understood they were approving it without seeing the budget for the work.
Upon hearing Canavan’s reply, Sims suggested the commission approve the bid “contingent on the bid meeting all our specifications.”
Commissioners — except for James Harrod, who was absent during the meeting — unanimously agreed with the award.
Dawson said the swift action taken by the commission would help expedite the process as Sims hoped.
“If everything is correct with the bid, the clean up could begin within two weeks,” she said. “It saved two weeks because we would’ve had to wait for the next meeting.”
Dawson said the approved bid was much lower than the $120,142 that local, state and federal teams estimated the project would cost after preliminary damage assessments.
Included in the debris removal will be “any vegetative materials — trees or any parts of trees and shrubs, building materials, fencing, white goods, appliances or any other non-vegetative materials damaged or displaced as a direct result of the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes that occurred May 10 through 13.” The debris — including all particles three or more inches — will be removed from all public right of ways and collection, chipping, loading, transporting and disposal of storm debris will be included in the project, according to the contract.
Dawson said debris removal within the city will begin this week, after a slight weather delay prevented crews from removing the debris last week, as scheduled.
She said several people already have removed debris from their properties themselves, “which is good but it gives the false idea to other residents that some debris has been moved off while other homes were skipped.” Dawson said contractors are aware of what debris they are to remove and therefore, residents in the affected “in town” areas may rest assured they have not been skipped and crews will get to them within the next few days.
