The Marion County Board of Supervisors is having to re-bid a request for proposals for debris removal from the April 19 EF-4 tornado after a technical issue arose Thursday related to the bid opening.
The county is waiting for an emergency declaration from FEMA for the deadly tornado, and if FEMA approves then it will pay 75% of the cleanup costs, MEMA 12.5% and the county 12.5%.
Tuesday the board approved a proposal by DebrisTech to monitor the removal and on Wednesday morning reviewed the RFPs for the actual removal. Seven proposals were submitted with two proposals not complying. A motion to take the proposals under advisement was made.
Jeff Dungan, county engineer, estimated there is approximately 35,000 cubic yards of debris to be removed and more than 1,000 broken and damaged trees that need to be cut down from rights-of-way. Dungan said estimates for removing and burning the debris are $970,000 or by chipping $1,062,500. The clean-up will take up to four months.
Prices from the qualifying proposals were submitted on both burning the debris and for chipping with the estimated bids as follows:
- Looks Great Services: Burning $704,400, Chipping $863,150
- Creel Brothers Inc.: Burning $819,400, Chipping $906,900
- Ceres Environment: Burning $851,021, Chipping $909,436
- TFR Enterprises LLC: Burning $869,775, Chipping $972,750
- KDF Enterprises LLC: Burning $884,855, Chipping $950,275
One of the bids did not comply because it was filed late and was erroneously opened, which caused the process to have to begin again.
County CPA Charlie Prince spoke via video conference about the finances on Thursday. He reported despite the natural disasters that have plagued the county in the first four months, the county is staying in-line with its annual budget.
“With everything we have, including everything y’all dealt with, we are real close to budget on the general funds, which is good at this point in time,” Prince said.
Prince said regarding the CARES Act’s $1.25 billon, a lot of entities will be fighting for the money. Hopefully, he said, the money will be disbursed soon as the county prepares to work on the 2020-2021 fiscal year budget. As the county does not have a lot of damage because of COVID-19, Prince said he did not anticipate the county receiving very much from the stimulus package.
Speaking of the budget, he believes the budget for next year will be the same as the current year, but work will not begin on the new budget until June 1.
Sheriff Berkley Hall addressed the board about the jail. Hall said even though the amount of inmates has increased by 100 to 110 after the prison riots at the first of the year, they have been able to keep food costs down. Regarding the deficit that the facility has held, it was decreased from $571,493 to $498,384. Both Hall and Prince agreed the jail is making progress in doing away with being in the negative.
Hall said the Department of Corrections has stopped moving inmates seven weeks ago once the coronavirus outbreak began. There haven’t been any new inmates moved in through the state system, but some inmates have been paroled or have served their time so the prison is down 25 inmates.
Insurance representative Eddie Ray Breakfield discussed the library with the board. He said the architect Steve Cox has submitted to him the proposed plans to repair the Columbia-Marion County Library on Thursday. Breakfield said he feels Cox and members of the library need to come to the next board meeting on May 18 for the plans to be presented to the board. Dungan suggested the board go ahead and authorize to begin to advertise bids for the work that needs to be done to the building. The board approved moving ahead with the advertisement.
