Aldermen to Trovero: "Kiss my asphalt good-bye"

With the recent unanimous vote to reject the lone bid for our annual street program, I wonder if there is some way to determine how our engineering estimate compares to other nearby communities for similar work. As Lois reported in a previous post, Ottawa decided to accept the bid from Advanced Asphalt which was also over their engineering estimate, albeit not to the extent that Peru's was. I am not an engineer, although I did play one on T.V in the 90's, on Baywatch. Those were the days when Pam Anderson was not quite as "big" a celebrity as she is now. Anyway. What I am wondering is if it would be possible to compare the quantitiy of work bid in each city and the engineering estimates for the proposed work in each city in order to try to determine what caused the disparities between estimates and bids. Can someone get to work on that and report back to us? I know the aldermen in Peru are convinced that Trovero was just trying to "turn the screws" on us and that is always a possibility, but I am not convinced that was the case. I am not saying they should have awarded the bid. I wish they would have left themselves other options in order to get some work done this season. They could have scrutinized the engineering estimates and the bids of other local cities (LaSalle also) as I suggested or possibly even allow the contractor an opportunity to shed some light on the situation if he still feels his bid is a fair one. Something that was left "unsaid" during the discussion of this matter on Wednesday was that there exists an "unwritten understanding" between some contractors in the area that they will not encroach on each others geographic base of operations when bidding certain projects. That of course does not allow for a very effective bidding process. We would hope that a local contracor would not see it as just an opportunity to inflate his bid. They are after all, our neighbors and local residents themselves. This situation is going to have to be replayed before too long and I hope our elected officials are looking for ways to come to terms with it. My personal opinion is that the city consider making a committment to proceed with a plan to perform at least a portion of the asphalt resurfacing program "in-house". Yes, it means a considerable capital investment for some of the speacialized equipment needed. We make significant capital investments in our city all the time. Why not do so for the purpose of performing our own street paving. We have Street Department employees represented by Operating Engineers who have the finest training and skill improvement facility in the country. Peru city employees can get hands-on instruction on this equipment at little or no cost to the taxpayers of Peru. Now, before you "union-bashers" start piling on......No, I don't want or need a job with the city! No, I don't believe Mayor Harl will hire "a bunch of his union buddies!". No, I don't have paving equipment to sell to the city! No! No! No! It's an idea. Maybe it could work? Too progressive? Too expensive? You tell me!