County board awards road contract; approves planning/zoning requests
Jake Keohen, Montgomery Messenger
The Le Sueur County Board approved a $9.2 million contract for road construction and approved planning and zoning commission recommendations at its regular meeting held Tuesday, June 24 at the courthouse in Le Center.
Highway Engineer Darrell Pettis recommended awarding of the bituminous contract to Wm. Mueller and Sons Inc. of Hamburg, who submitted the lowest of six bids. The bid was more than $1 million higher than the engineer's estimate, which Pettis attributed to the current price of oil.
Prior to the motion awarding the contract, County Attorney Brent Christian said the board had two options: accept the low bid, or reject all bids and rebid the contract, since the second lowest bidder, Knife River Corp. of Sauk Rapids, had claimed a flaw in the bidding process and was threatening a lawsuit.
A decision to rebid at this time would delay these projects to next year