LINCOLN -- The City Council on March 20 approved two ordinances to amend the city's contract with McClelland Consulting Engineers for two projects.
Lincoln has a contract with McClelland to provide general contracting services, and the two projects are outside the scope of this contract. Both ordinances authorize the mayor to enter into an amendment to the city's contract with McClelland.
The city will have to relocate a water main along Arkansas 45 because the Arkansas Department of Transportation is relocating bridges as it makes improvements to the highway.
The ordinance calls for a work order with McClelland for engineering services on the project for a price not to exceed $48,314.
The city will be responsible for managing the project to relocate the water main, which includes engineering, bidding the job and construction.
The state will reimburse Lincoln 96.2% of the total costs to relocate the water main. Mayor Doug Hutchens said the city's portion will be costs to relocate bores that are in the state right of way.
Rhonda Hulse, city business manager, said McClelland estimates the total costs will be about $400,000. She said the city's portion should be around $15,000, but the city will have to pay all costs up front and then be reimbursed by the state.
"That's why we try to keep the reserves that we keep," Hutchens said.
For the second ordinance, the council amended its contract with McClelland for geotechnical services to evaluate the soil composition on Lincoln Square for the proposed construction of a new community building. The city will pay McClelland up to $3,785 for the service.
According to the proposal, McClelland will perform a geotechnical investigation consisting of three project borings using a truck-mounted drill rig. The borings will have a planned target depth of 20 feet below the existing surface elevations. A lab analysis will be performed on the samples to determine the engineering properties of the soil.
"This is on the square looking at what we have to work with for our soil composition, where we have solid rock and what we have to deal with on the building and the building design," Hutchens said.
The city will have a special election May 9 asking voters to renew a 0.625% local sales tax with proceeds to be used to refund the library bond issue and then issue bonds for a new community building on Lincoln Square.
Hutchens said the geotechnical contract would allow the city to know ahead what its needs will be for a new community building if voters approve renewing the sales tax.
"This is a lot of the decision making, knowing what we have under the grass going forward," Hutchens told council members.
In other action, the council approved an ordinance to amend the 1% general sales tax account line item in the 2023 budget.
Hulse explained that the original 2023 budget had $13,000 for body cameras for the Police Department, but costs have gone up, so the actual cost will be more than $18,000 for the first year. The cost will be about $10,000 per year for the next four years, Hulse said, as long as costs don't increase again.