Last week’s commission meeting covered a variety of bases as the city reappointed representatives, altered the budget and set several public hearings.
Filling the dais
City Commissioner Rick Lott was chosen to continue to serve as Plant City’s mayor. Lott then selected Commissioner Mike Sparkman to serve as his vice mayor. The mayor is selected from the commissioners, by the commissioners. He then gets to pick who he wishes to serve as vice mayor.
Commissioner Mary Thomas Mathis was sworn in for a new term last week after an uncontested election. Commissioners then selected the Community Redevelopment Agency Chair and Vice Chair, which they decided to keep the same as the leadership of the city commission.
Then they went through the annual duty of designating representatives to different organizations. The Council of Governments has two members, Plant City Economic Development Corporation has one representative, Ridge League of Cities has one member and one alternate, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council has one member and one alternate, Tourist Development Council has a member and Transportation Planning Organization has one member and one alternate.
Everything remained the same as it has been for years, except that Mayor Lott asked Commissioner Nate Kilton to switch seats with him for the Transportation Planning Organization.
Lott has been the longest serving member in the group’s history and wants to become the alternate with Kilton taking first chair so that they can switch up the representation at the table.
Commissioner Mathis was also chosen to serve on the Affordable Housing Board as an alternate, which is a new position for the city.
Contract approval
The commissioners authorized the city manager to execute 40 contracts for continuing engineering services and to execute up to four, single-year renewals for each contract. The City of Plant City uses “continuing contracts for engineering services when projects are estimated to be less than the statutory threshold of $4 million for construction and $500,000 for design or a study.”
Contracts in several categories have nearly all expired and so Procurement, in conjunction with Engineering and Utilities, developed a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to replace the current contracts. The RFQ was posted on Nov. 5, 2020 and by Dec. 10, 2020 the city had received 64 responses.
The categories were: General Engineering, Transportation, Environmental, Stormwater, Geotechnical, Water & Wastewater, Sub-Surface Utility, Instrumentation & Controls, Electrical and Registered Surveying & Mapping.
An evaluation committee consisting of Lynn Spivey, Tonya Grant, Hye (Jay) Kwag, Pauline Nunez, Tatyana Austin, and Matthew Benton met on Feb. 17, 2021 and selected 40 firms for continuing contracts. Most of the firms selected are qualified in multiple categories.
Passing the reins on Turkey Creek
The county is officially taking over the Turkey Creek Road Enhancements project. City Manager Bill McDaniel announced last Monday that an Interlocal Agreement with Hillsborough County was ready to be approved.
In May 2013 the city and county entered into an interlocal agreement to provide funding for the Turkey Creek Road Improvement Project. Then in 2015, the City of Plant City hired HDR to design the project improvements that include reconstruction and widening of approximately1.2 miles of the road and widening of 950 linear feet along another part of the road. The design also discuses widening 800 linear feet of Airport Road approaching Turkey Creek Road and realigning the intersection of Airport and Turkey Creek from a skewed intersection to a 90-degree T-intersection. It also called for the installation of a new mast arm traffic signal system at the intersection. Finally the design discussed the relocation and adjustment of associated utilities, including potable water, wastewater, sanitary sewer force main, new conduit piping and removal and disposal of abandoned utilities.
Then on Aug. 31 Procurement published an Invitation to Bid on the project and the bids were received by Nov. 19. Ajax Paving Industries of Florida, LLC was the lowest responsive bid, coming in at $10,465,509.52. That bid exceeded the entire project budget so the city manager and the county administrator came to an agreement that the county should assume full responsibility for the construction of the project.
According to the City of Plant City, “This agreement would equally benefit the county, the city, and our citizens. The county would accept the city’s procurement process, award the bid, and provide project management. The city would pay for the portion of the project that directly benefits the city’s infrastructure.”
When commissioners approved the resolution last week they also approved a budget adjustment to transfer funds within projects to send a cash payment to the County of $6,240,265.13, which was paid from:
- ST020 – Airport Road Realignment – $820,007.39
- ST022 – Airport Road/Turkey Creek Road Signalization – $126,356.84 (City’s portion)
- NEW – Water/Sewer Utility Line Relocation – $2,512,700.66
- ST021 – Turkey Creek Road – $2,781,200.24 ($3 million reimbursement less expenses)
The report said that the project should be completed within 22 months of the Notice of Intent to Award.