KIMBALL, Tenn. – A project to install a manhole on Dixie Lee Center Drive to accommodate a new O’Reilly Auto Parts store and future development near that site is on hold as Kimball city leaders seek a better price for the work.
At the Kimball Board of Mayor and Aldermen’s March meeting, Mayor Rex Pesnell said the project was coordinated with the South Pittsburg Board of Water Works & Sewers, which supplies those services to Kimball, engineering firm James C. Hailey & Co. in Nashville, and local builder Hawkins Contracting.
“O’Reilly’s is building there, and they’re going to need to tap onto the sewer,” he said. “They’ve already paid for that. The water company’s got to hook their water and everything up.”
While the needed work is being done, Pesnell said officials wanted to extend the sewer to nearby lots to service future development.
“We have to dig [the road] up anyway,” he said. “We didn’t want to have to cut the road, and then have to come back and cut the road again. We wanted to do it one time.”
The price for the work from Hawkins is $9,800, but that money does not include repaving the road.
Alderman John Matthews asked if there was an estimate on the repaving.
“We don’t have that yet,” Pesnell said. “We know that’s a given. It’s got to be redone.”
He said the South Pittsburg Board of Water Works & Sewers would coordinate that work, too, and Kimball would pay for that later.
Matthews said since Kimball is paying for the work, the contractor should have given the price directly to the city board for consideration instead.
“They [South Pittsburg Board of Water Works & Sewers] coordinated it,” Pesnell said. “They got [the price], and I called them and talked to them about it. So, that’s where we are.”
Kimball’s engineering firm “seemed to think it was a fair price,” he said.
Vice Mayor Jerry Don Case said since there is a different local contractor, Lofty Construction Company, already on site, it would likely be “cheaper and easier” for that company to do the work.
Pesnell said he didn’t know if the South Pittsburg Board of Water Works & Sewers explored that option or when the work was scheduled to begin.
Case said he “didn’t quite understand” why Kimball was not more involved in the decision-making process.
“If we’re doing it, why wouldn’t we say, ‘Let’s take bids on this thing and see what it’s going to cost to get from this side of the road to this side of the road,'” he said.
The proposed price is under the required bidding limit of $10,000, Pesnell said, so if the board chose that route, it would delay the project significantly.
“Why can’t we get two quotes?” Case asked.
Matthews said even if the project is being coordinated through the South Pittsburg Board of Water Works & Sewers, Kimball should still have the option to seek a better price.
Kimball’s existing contract with South Pittsburg Board of Water Works & Sewers says that the utility oversees any large projects that Kimball has regarding the water or sewer lines.
“I’d still like to see [Lofty],” Matthews said. “He may say $10,000. If we know, then we know. If he says $7,500 since he’s got his equipment there, then we’ll know that also. I think it’s OK for it to be coordinated through South Pittsburg because they know that business, but I think we still need to have a lead on it.”
Alderman Johnny Sisk made a motion to seek another quote for the project from Lofty Construction Company.
The board voted unanimously to do so, but it will not take up the issue again until the next regular meeting on April 4, unless a special called meeting is deemed necessary.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com