One member of the Macomb City Council says the panel should have looked at cost-savings over the "long-term" when it selected the bid to resurface the American Legion's parking lot.
The city and the organization share ownership of the lot.
The council has accepted the low bid from Laverdiere Construction for a bit less than
$112-thousand to resurface it with asphalt.
Sixth Ward Alderman Tim Lobdell does not like the asphalt option.
He says, “I have been a long-standing proponent of using concree wherever we can. Its life-expectancy is from two to three times longer in a use like this. So when you're looking at the price difference you kind of have to factor in that longevity of material.”
Lobdell also says the lowest bid for concrete was well below the engineer's estimate for the project.
That bid was about 30-thousand dollars more than the lowest asphalt bid.
Lobdell wants assurances that Macomb would not be surprised by such a major project in the future.
He says, ”This project came about because of a long-standing agreement with the American Legion. It was my understanding when we went forward with this that that agreement was going to be altered so that major reconstruction was not going to be a part of our future on their portion of the parking lot.”
City Attorney Kristen Petrie says the city will have to take care of routine maintenance and snow removal of the site. She iis working with the American Legion on an agreement about future improvements to prevent the city taking on such large projects in the future.