TOWER—Infrastructure work for the new Vermilion RV Park should get underway soon following city council action here on Monday. The council voted unanimously to award the work to Jola and Sopp Excavating for a total of $316,705, which was the second lowest bid among six bidders on the project.
The low bid of $290,700, from Veit & Co., was rejected due to missing documentation. In a letter to the council, the project engineer, Jeremy Schwarze of Benchmark Engineering, indicated that project developer Justin Renner wished to move forward with the bid from Veit & Co. once the city receives the missing documentation. But the council rejected that possibility in awarding the job to the second-lowest bidder.
Funding for the infrastructure work is coming from the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation, with the city serving as fiscal agent. In that role, it’s up to the city to handle the bidding and contractor payouts for the project. Renner is in the process of developing a 49-unit RV park located along Pike Bay, just west of the mouth of the East Two River.
In other development action, the council opted to give SEH a second chance to provide an estimate for work on the second phase site plan and cost estimates for the trailhead project near the harbor. The city had also asked Benchmark Engineering for a proposal and Benchmark provided a formal proposal with a $6,500 price tag. SEH offered a less formal proposal, with an estimated cost of $7,500.
Rather than accept the low estimate from Benchmark, the council, after some discussion, opted to ask both firms to revisit their quotes and resubmit them in a formal manner. Council member Joe Morin questioned whether the process would be fair to Benchmark, given that the firm’s lower bid would now be known to SEH. Yet the council was unconvinced and voted to request new quotes from the firms for the site planning on the project.
The project includes two phases. The first, which is well underway, is focused on construction of the trailhead parking area and accompanying lighting, and construction of a road to the site, located just north of Hwy. 169 on the east side of the East Two River. That work, which is funded through a $600,000 grant from the LCCMR, was recently awarded to Mesabi Bituminous.
The second phase will focus on completion of the access road as well as improvements around the city’s civic center, including a green flush restroom. That work is slated to be funded by a $461,900 grant from the DIRRR.
New council member added
The council also took action on Monday to replace council member Sheldon Majerle, who died recently after a short battle with cancer. The council voted 3-0, with Morin abstaining, to appoint Robert Anderson to fill the vacancy. Anderson, who is related to Morin, was the only applicant for the position. He will serve until the general election in November, unless he wins election to the seat.
The council also approved a resolution authorizing a special election to fill the council seat formerly held by current mayor, Dave Setterberg. Setterberg was appointed as mayor to replace Orlyn Kringstad, who resigned last year. Setterberg had won election to a four-year term in 2020, but gave up his seat to become mayor. His former council seat, now filled by Tom Suihkonen, will be up again before the voters in November of this year. Two other council seats and the mayor’s seat will be up as well, leaving four of the five elected offices in the city up for grabs this fall.
In other action, the council:
• Authorized the clerk-treasurer to contact individuals with delinquent sewer loans and make arrangements to pay off those loans by Sept. 30. Clerk-treasurer Michael Schultz reported that five individual loans, totaling $8,098.21, are currently delinquent.
• Appointed Aaron Kania to the city’s forestry board. Kania has been active in recent trail-building efforts in Tower and is well-versed on land management issues, currently serving as Kawishiwi District Ranger on the Superior National Forest.
• Scheduled the presentation of the city’s 2021 audit report during the council’s Aug. 8 regular meeting.