T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY City of Marshalltown Public Works Director Heather Thomas addressed the mayor, city clerk, city administrator and council on a number of major projects and contracts during Monday night’s regular meeting.

The Marshalltown city council voted to reallocate $250,000 in Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) dollars toward the replacement of four bridges between Marshalltown and Albion and awarded a $7.1 million contract to a local company for the East Main and Center Street phase of the downtown reconstruction project during Monday night’s regular meeting.

The trail item came first on the agenda, and it came on the heels of news that the city’s joint application for a $12 million federal Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program (ATIIP) grant was unsuccessful. Councilor Greg Nichols first asked for clarification on whether the $250,000 was simply a contingency for the project, estimated at a total cost of around $1.54 million, based on how bids come in from contractors. Public Works Director Heather Thomas disagreed with that assessment and said it would be $250,000 toward the project with the private fundraising serving as the contingency.

During the public comment period, Leigh Bauder referenced a memo in the council packet that said none of the top or high priority goals identified in the council’s 2025 strategic plan related to trails, and she interpreted the proposed resolution as “moving dollars around.”

“Why are we as the city of Marshalltown using our limited LOST dollars which appears to be outside of our city limits?” she asked.

She noted that the city and county have both committed funds to the project and referenced stricter scrutiny of how tax dollars are spent at the state and federal levels, instead suggesting using the money to address the city’s strategic goals, keeping the library’s bookmobile, known as MOBI, in operation or updating parks.

With no further public comment, the council voted 6-1 to approve the reallocation — Mark Mtichell was the lone dissenter. From there, the next item of business was to award the contract for the second phase of the Main Street reconstruction project, which the council had previously discussed at its meeting two weeks ago.

Nichols told the audience he was pleased that the low bid of $7,125,694.60 from Con-Struct Inc. was in line with the cost estimate provided, and during the public comment period, Lonnie Hogeland expressed his happiness about the contract being awarded to a local outfit.

“I think we should be lucky that we have a company like this, able to do this project, in town. We’re spending the money in Marshalltown,” Hogeland said.

The motion to award the bid passed unanimously. The council then moved on to a piece of adjacent business in approving an increase of $795,000 in the professional contract with Bolton and Menk for services related to the Main Street project. The item drew a question for Thomas from Councilor Gary Thompson, who wondered if having two currently vacant engineering positions filled at the city level would mean that such work could be completed in-house.

“Right now, if I had nothing else on my plate, I would be able to do this in-house with maybe a $25,000 not to exceed contract for some of the landscape architecture aspects that I don’t have that background, so it would depend on the (project engineer) that we have in place,” she said. “Historically, that position has been design oriented in construction management of things that are done in-house, but that would be something to consider as we fill those positions, if some of these types of projects can be done with staff in-house.”

Thompson emphasized the importance of filling the vacancy, framing it as a cost-saving measure in the long-term.

“We’re talking millions that these openings are costing the city by having vacancies, correct?” he asked.

“There’s a significant amount of consulting that we are needing to do because of the vacancies that we currently have,” she replied.

A motion to approve the amended agreement passed by a unanimous vote.

In other business, the council:

• Approved the consent agenda as listed.

• Accepted a bid and awarded a contract for the South Center Street median replacement project to Boulder Contracting of Grundy Center in the amount of $66,246.70, despite two public comments urging the council to accept a slightly higher bid from Con-Struct as the company is based in Marshalltown.

• Accepted a bid and awarded a contract to WRH Inc. for Water Pollution Control Plant sludge thickening.

• Approved a professional services agreement in the amount of $351,600 with HR Green Inc. for the sludge thickening project.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

maharry@timesrepublican.com.