BICKNELL — Mayor Thomas Estabrook says, barring an unlikely “hail Mary,” the city will have to return funds received from the Indiana Community Crossings Matching Grant program.
“This one is kind of painful,” he said. “I’ll have to give it back because we can’t afford to pay the $300,000 in overage.”
City officials found themselves in a bind after bids for a near $1 million repaving effort came in too high.
The city’s Board of Works opened bids last month on this latest round of paving associated with yet another successful application to the state’s Community Crossings Matching Grant program.
The city received two bids, one each from E&B Paving and Milestone Contractors for $1.29 million and $1.16 million respectively.
Both, Estabrook says, are more than the $863,000 — both in the city’s money and state money — Bicknell has to spend on the project.
The mayor says while he is incredibly disappointed, the financial situation would have been nearly impossible to predict.
“Nobody knew in December what the price of oil would be now,” he said of the commodity that’s driving up prices of materials and labor. “Lots of other communities are facing this same problem.”
County elected officials, for instance, faced the same issue.
The county commissioners in May opened bids on their own CCMG-funded paving project, which would upgrade 13 miles of road.
The bids, however, came in higher than originally anticipated — just over $100,000 above what the county had allotted to spend.
After a little time, however, highway superintendent Benji Boyd says he was able to find the additional funds in his budget.
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