City returns left-over grant funds to state

By KATE McCARDELL KERN
Published: July 10, 2008

A project to bring infrastructure to Oldcastle Precast Concrete via the Family Dollar Parkway has been completed under budget, and the Marianna City Commission has agreed to return more than $300,000 to the state.
The project was not funded by city money, rather by state funds in the form of Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development and Community Development Block grants which totaled $2,133,945 in money allocated for the project.
An initially low bid, combined with a final change order, made the total project cost $1,765,877, according to a memo to City Manager Jim Dean from David Melvin, president of the David H. Melvin Inc. engineer firm.
On Wednesday, the commission approved that final change order, which is a reduction in the final contract price of approximately $56,498.
All told, a total of $368,068 will be returned to the state.
One reason the project was completed under budget was because a $20,200 deduction was made in liquidated damages on the contractor, Gulf Coast Utility Contractors LLC., for 101 days delay.
Another reason, according to Jackson County Development Council’s executive director Bill Stanton, is the economy.
“The economy is so bad that construction companies are bidding very competitively, and that caused the bids for the project to be very low,” said Stanton, who said that the amount of money being returned to the state was an extremely significant amount to be returned, the likes of which he has not seen happen before.
“It’s a win-win situation for taxpayers, particularly those who live in the city, because city taxes weren’t used for the project and a large sum of tax payer money will now go back to the state,” said Stanton.
As one infrastructure project ends, another has not yet begun.
Marianna commissioners approved a motion to allow city staff to request proposals for engineering services on an infrastructure project for Ice River Springs, a water bottling plant that would be located in the Marianna Industrial Park.
The request for proposals would prepare the city to execute an economic development transportation grant agreement that would be received by the city from OTTED.
Commissioners appointed a committee to rank proposals. The committee will consist of Commissioner Paul Donofro, city manager Jim Dean and public works director Joe Richey.