Bid process to start over, for Beatrice Municipal Airport project

BEATRICE – The City of Beatrice will re-bid a project to construct a T-Hangar, upgrade taxi-lanes and an approach at the Beatrice Municipal Airport.

Elected officials Monday night voted to reject a bid submitted earlier by Vogts Parga Construction. City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer said the city ran into a timing issue…because the bids submitted were good for 90-days.

"We went well beyond those 90 days. And so, initially, we had accepted their bid contingent upon getting grant funding and doing some other stuff, there. Since the 90 days are gone, we reached back out to Vogts Parga and said, do you need to adjust your price, based on the fact the 90 days have passed. They came back and asked for $277,184 in an increase for their bid. Our engineers looked at that and said that increase in price was not justifiable."

The formal rejection of the Vogts Parga bid came after consulting with the Federal Aviation Administration. Tempelmeyer says the hope is to receive new bids by the end of December. The city has grant funds and FAA support waiting for the project to be done.

In other action Monday night, the City of Beatrice voted to serve as the conduit for a bond issuance of up to $38 million sought by the P-3 Foundation…a non-profit building a residential hall in Lincoln on the University of Nebraska Campus.  The city would be paid a fee…but not be liable to bond holders. The city would also receive up to four scholarships per year, to be designated for Beatrice area students…something City Council member Dana Hydo says tipped the scales for her.

"To me, the spots for the students from Beatrice, means more to me, actually, than just a little bit of cash. Because, then I can see there is a benefit to Beatrice and there is a benefit to our students."

There was not complete agreement on the arrangement. Councilman Duane Ruh cast a no vote. "It's going to benefit the university and Lancaster County....not here. That's the problem I had...and I've had seven phone calls today from people with that concern. I would like to look at it further...and I'm not saying it's a bad deal....but I'm just on the fence, yet."

Mayor Bob Morgan, a former college campus president, said financing residence halls is an art, that is becoming more difficult. He said it’s a matter of being good neighbors and that there are benefits affecting Beatrice.

The City of Beatrice is also purchasing some property from a local trust….land that is located near Hannibal Park. The Beatrice City Council approved spending $15,000 to acquire nearly two acres of ground from Gary and Sharon Rupprecht, situated between the Beatrice State Developmental Center and Hannibal View.

The property has utilities and is currently platted for a total of four lots. A street…Jefferson Street… if extended, would also provide access to an additional two lots in Hannibal View. The plan is for the city to sell the lots. A public hearing on the purchase of the land was held Monday night.