MASON CITY — The City Council in Mason City last night once again delayed awarding a contract for the Plymouth Road Storm Water Mitigation Project that addresses flooding concerns in that area.

The council at their September 3rd meeting had to re-start the process of getting bids for the project after no bids were received. The project was originally scheduled to be completed by November 8th, but now city officials are eyeing a substantial completion date in March prior to the spring thaw and rains.

The city received and opened a single bid last Tuesday from McKinness Excavating for $373,233, 58% over the engineer’s opinion of cost and 49% over the project budget.

City Engineer Mark Rahm says that requires further review of the project. “I did not discuss it with the contractor at this point, since nothing has been approved or awarded. I’m meeting later this week with a couple of the engineers with WHKS, and we’re going to go back and look at some of the very first steps that we looked at in putting this project together.”

Rahm says it’s possible to alter the project but still have the same results in addressing the flooding concerns in that area of the community.  “There are some other things that we could do possibly to make it more attractive and bring that price down, but it would require substantial changes in the design where I feel even with that, I don’t feel it will impact the endgame, what we’re looking for as far as mitigating that storm water up there.”

Rahm says he will be back in front of the council at their meeting in two weeks with a recommendation on what to do with the project.  “We will be back on the 15th to do something, whether that be revising the plans and bid it again, or revise the bid and award it.”

The council unanimously approved rescheduling the public hearing on the project for their October 15th meeting.