04-12-2021 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, March 8, 2021 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 4 of 24 a. FOURTH QUARTER FINANCIAL REPORT – Continued he knows is near and dear to Edwards’ heart. Also, regarding the top vendors, there was a $240,000 balance but that included paying for the land of $340,000 so really it is at $580,000. He noted they paid for the land out of the revenues of this year, as well. That was a huge positive and leads the City very well going into budget this summer. Even though their permanent revenue was down just a bit, they have kept stepping that up over the years as they have had such a divergent variance of what was happening versus what was getting done. To have it that close in a COVID year is a testament to the strength of the housing market and building, as long as the interest rates stay reasonable. Walsh said they budgeted well and should have some extra room this year to hopefully increase the roads a bit, bring their parks where they want them, continue funding their building fund, and all the other things technology-wise they are doing in the City. Johnson asked about the piece in the budget that Walsh does not like to count. Seals said the chip sealing. Walsh said it is the chip/crack sealing. Johnson noted they have $224,000 to put towards it now. Walsh said if they notice in looking through the budget, Edwards has a discretionary fund of $100,000- $200,000. It is a roads non-dedicated fund for fixing things. Crosby thinks the roads are a little more stressed this year so they will need it. Olson said if the Council remembers back in July when they received their first half tax settlement, he was pretty worried as he did not know what would happen with sales and property taxes. To finish the year during COVID at 99.1% which is really pretty much where the City ends up, is a very good indication on how property taxes will go forward this year, which eases his mind. Walsh said that even gives flex on what was collected this year. PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR/CITY ENGINEER REPORT 22. 2021 ROAD MAINTENANCE PROJECT AWARD Edwards said tonight they have the 2021 Roads Project Award before the Council. He pointed out this particular project, unlike past years, is actually a conglomerate of several projects the City wanted to undertake. They are asking not only to award the streets project as it was originally envisioned, but also combined three other projects with the bid package that was sent out: the Casco storm water project, the Fagerness Point storm water project, and the Navarre parking lot project. The nature of all of those projects was such that the same contractor would be bidding on those. By putting them all together, the idea was to get a better price for bulk. Edwards said they solicited bids and had 7 bidders, the low bid was from the Omann Brothers for $1,389,000 and would bring a project total with both the work by Omann Brothers and the work by Bolton and Menk on the engineering design and oversight to $1,600,000. That fits within the projected numbers when combining all those projects together and there is a bit of movement in what the projections were for individual funds. They are a little lower than what