Kimball City Attorney and Marion County Attorney Billy GougerKIMBALL, Tenn. -- The severe storms on March 2 caused extensive damage to Kimball city property, and now officials are going through the process of getting things repaired.
Kimball Mayor David Jackson said there is widespread hail damage to "all of the city buildings, except the maintenance building."
Four police cars also were totaled, officials said.
"When the insurance adjuster was here [inspecting the damage], he asked what the maximum was that we could spend without having to bid the work out," Jackson said. "When we said it was $10,000, the insurance adjuster said, 'Get ready to bid.'"
On Thursday, the Kimball Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved a base bid of $43,200, with an extra $1,500 for a roofing upgrade, from Two Rivers Roofing Inc. in Madison, Tenn.. The contract must be reviewed by city attorney Billy Gouger and the insurance adjuster.
Jackson said he is unsure how much of the cost will be covered because the city's insurer is waiting for the results of the bid process.
Officials were disappointed that no local contractors submitted bids.
"We had two bids, but unfortunately, none of them were from local people," Jackson said.
Gouger said companies can perform work such as roofing repairs without a license if the total cost is under $25,000.
"I think the reason [Kimball] didn't get local roofing companies bidding is because most of the work they do is less than $25,000 per job," he said. "That way, they're not required legally to be licensed."
The city can't separately bid repairs for each building as a way to encourage local contractors to compete, he said.
"I think the law is going to consider it cumulative," Gouger said. "If it's all the same work being done for the town, the state [contractor's review] board is going to add it all together. We discussed that as a possibility, but the law is designed to keep people from doing that."
Circumventing those state standards would be a criminal offense, he said.
"I'd like to keep [the work] local, but in this case, we can't," Alderman Johnny Sisk said.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.