Saturday Night Rain
Sep/090
Well, it’s been another thrilling night in Bellevue. After several days of consistent rain, the creek swelled and the street began to show signs of flooding… yet again. Those of us who were at home and aware of the situation managed to move our cars out of harm’s way and trek back to the safety of our porches. Our neighbors who ventured out may not return to such good fortune. But that’s the chance you take when you live on Covert Run Pike.
While we wouldn’t wish our troubles on anyone, it’s kind of sad that Bellevue’s mayor and city administrators — who continue to talk about the money they’ve raised and the plans they’ve made, despite the fact that our project didn’t garner a single bid from area contractors — can’t really appreciate the situation. They were informed years ago of the flooding on Covert Run Pike, and they wisely chose to buy homes on dryer Bellevue streets. On nights like tonight, many of us are wishing that this problem had been as clearly outlined for us when we were in the market for homes. If someone had been there to explain to us that several times a year we would have to move our cars (or face losing them), pump water by the hundreds of gallons from our homes, scrape toxic sludge from our sidewalks, and spend countless rainy hours worrying and wondering, we all might have headed for higher ground.
But since hindsight is 20:20, and we have no choice otherwise, it’s best to keep looking toward the future. What’s the story, Bellevue? When will the bidding process resume? What were the reasons for area contractors shying away from the project in the first place, and what measures have you taken to ensure that we’ll get bids next time? What’s the status of the million+ dollars we raised toward the project? How will the winter impede the necessary repairs?
We have plenty more questions, but, looking out the window now, it appears that the rain has subsided and we might avoid a major catastrophe after all. Time to go retrieve our vehicles and (hopefully) enjoy the rest of our weekend.
Till next time…
A Minor Speedbump
Sep/090
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This afternoon, Bellevue City Administrator Keith Spoelker sent an e-mail informing Covert Run Pike residents of the results of today’s bid opening. Here is what he says:
“The bid opening for Covert Run was yesterday. We didn’t receive ANY bids, which was highly unusual to SD1, myself, KZF Engineers, and the Northern Ky Water District.
The partners in the project have spent most of today discussing options on how to rebid and talking to vendors who picked up the plan as to why they didn’t bid. Many of the responses indicate there were other bid requests open at the same time and the vendors responded to those bids rather than ours.
The project will be placed out for rebid. We are working with SD1 and KZF for the new timetable. I wish it was better news, but I thought you should know about it.”
***
While this news is disheartening to say the least, let’s try to look at the bright side. As Keith points out, these results surprised all parties involved and are presumably atypcial for a project of this scope. We have every reason to believe that once the bidding resumes, vendors will bid and we can look forward to getting our street repaired.
In the meantime, however, we still have a responsibility to ask the difficult questions that Keith failed to cover in his communication: Why did vendors ignore the bid request? Does the budget fall short? Is the project not feasible? How long will it take to resume the bidding process? What do we do if the next round fails to elicit bids?
I urge you to contact Bellevue City Council with any questions you have. Call Keith Spoelker at (859) 431-8866 and let him know that you will do what it takes to help see that our flooding problems are resolved. We need to remind them that this issue is not going away for us, so we will not go away either.
Please check back to the site regularly as I will be posting updates and information as I get it.
Keep looking forward!
Postponed Bid Review TODAY
Sep/090
Hi all,
The following is a message from Keith Spoelker, Bellevue City Administrator, letting us know that the date for opening sealed work bids was pushed back to today:
“At the prebid meeting, the potential vendors asked a bunch a questions and asked for clarifications on a few items. To give them time to work on the clarifications and addendum, we decided to give them 2 more days to complete the bid (having the opening the day after a major holiday didn’t help either). The bid opening is now Thursday.”
I hope to be in touch with Keith later this afternoon to find out the number and nature of bids received. Let’s hope that the city decides to accept a bid and press forward on repairing Covert Run Pike.
Check back for updates!