The Starke County Commissioners opened a bid for the Chip Seal Program during their meeting last week.
In a previous meeting, the commissioners were notified the county had been awarded a matching grant from the Indiana Department of Transportation’s (INDOT) Community Crossings Matching Grant (CCMG) Program. At that time, the county had received $1,000,000 for the Chip Seal Program from INDOT.
The first project consisted of chip sealing 45.5 miles throughout Starke County. That project, labeled CCMG 2023-01 was awarded to Central Paving Inc. for having the lowest of two total bids. The $1,071,899.25 bid was approved at a previous meeting and 25 percent was used from the County’s CEDIT fund. The CCMG 2023-01project was completed in September.
Starke County Auditor Rachel Oesterreich told WKVI News, a new project was advertised in efforts to use the remaining balance of the matching grant from INDOT. She stated this new project is CCMG 2023-02 and consists of 15 miles of roads throughout Starke County.
During the last commissioner meeting, a single bid was received for CCMG 2023-02. Central Paving was the lone bid and came in at $293,564.65. The commissioners tabled the bid to discuss at a future meeting. During their meeting last week, Oesterreich informed the commissioners the bid from Central Paving came in about $33,000 over what was left within the remaining balance of the CCMG funds. She stated the county has enough to cover the difference by using funding from their CEDIT, Roads and Bridges funds.
A motion was made to approve the CCMG 2023-02 project with $33,000 to come from CEDIT, Roads and Bridges to cover the remaining cost. That motion was seconded and passed unanimously by vote.
