EARLY – During Tuesday night’s meeting, the Early City Council unanimously rejected all bids for the Autumn Drive construction projects, citing the rising costs based on the money originally budgeted for the endeavor.

“A couple of council meetings ago we went out for bids for the Autumn Drive reconstruction and tonight we presented those bids to the council,” said Early City Administrator Tony Aaron. “We had looked at and spoke to about four different contractors and had communication with them through the bidding process. When it came down to it we had one contractor that turned in for the project. We were anticipating the project to be in the neighborhood of $600,000 and the project came in at $1.2 million. Through some valued engineering and reducing and changing some materials we could probably get that down to around $820,000. In presenting that to the council at this point in time my recommendation was to reject all bids. Maybe it’s the timing and people couldn’t get to the jobs, but felt it was prudent of us to step back and come at it again later and try for a better price.”

The Crescent neighborhood sewer line rehab is also being re-strategized due to financial issues.

“There’s also a project we had a similar response to on the Crescent Street sewer project,” Aaron said. “It involves some money that comes through the Texas Water Development Board, and they have some requirements that would not allow us as a city internally to do work deeper than five feet or installing manholes. We were looking at using that money and doing the work internally and make the money go twice as far, but their requirements are we have to go out for bid and hire a contractor that’s OSHA certified to do that. With that, there’s going to be lot more of an increase of cost to it, maybe two to three times as much as if we did it in house.”

The Early City Council also unanimously approved seeking bids for the construction of the Early Town Center Pond project.

“The construction bid would be to excavate and dig that pond out to right at 6 to 7 acres and shoreline stability that’s put into it,” Aaron said. “We’ll probably have a 30- to 45-day window where we go out for bids. We’re looking at the last meeting in August to possibly award those bids and then start construction on that which should last through the fall and the winter. We’re looking at a summer completion of that with it being stocked and ready for fish.”

The Early Municipal Development District was authorized by unanimous vote by the City Council to purchase approximately 1.31 acres on Parkway Drive for $200,000 near the location of the Petco building that is being constructed.

“If we don’t do something with it, it could probably sit vacant for the next 20 years,” Early Assistant City Administrator Larry McConn said of the property. during the meeting. “Petco is essentially paying for it through their lease and would never be interested in developing it themselves. Through the MDD I began having discussions with the developer and it’s a win-win situation for both parties if the MDD were to acquire this land. The developer would be able to take that cost of the land from the least that Petco is having, so Petco would have better lease for the building, and then we could benefit from it by selling the land and having a second business on the property that would not exist otherwise.”

Also Tuesday night, the Early City Council approved:

• Ordinance 2022-06 authorizing a Franchise Agreement with Atmos Energy Corporation for 10 years with two optional 5-year renewals
• Ordinance 2022-07 authorizing a Franchise Agreement with Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC for 10 years with two optional 5-year renewals
• Ordinance 2022-08, amending Unified Development Code, Chapter 23, Articles 3 relating to parking requirements for Trailer Sales and Rentals
• Resolution 2022-R08, authorizing a 380 Agreement between City of Early and Sunrise Property Group, LLC regarding the Longhorn Subdivision development project
• Appointing Joel Johnson for a vacancy on the Municipal Development District Board
• Nominating Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes for the TML Health Benefits Pool, Region 6, 2022, Board of Trustee Election