The Camp Verde Town Council approved five contracts for ongoing work on the Sports Complex during its Wednesday, March 5 meeting. Councilwoman Jessie Murdock was absent.
The council first discussed a $341,570 contract for the operation of the complex’s lift station and force-main pipeline with Earth Resources.
“You know, Earth Resources did a lot of excavation a few years ago and we issued a whole lot of change orders,” Mayor Dee Jenkins said. “The original bid was $2 million. We ended up with over $3 million on this, all having to do with excavation.”
Capital Improvement Project Manager Martin Smith said that he believed most of the previous change orders had resulted from issues within city staff, and that the project had been put out to bid, with three different companies submitting bids, of which Earth Resources’ was the lowest.
The project will require a 24-foot-deep wet well, which led to questions from Jenkins and Councilman Brian Bolton; Smith said that while he couldn’t guarantee no change order would be required, he didn’t believe it would come up in the future.
Council then approved the contract 6-0 before moving on to discuss a second contract with Fann Environmental LLC for $89,185.03 for supplying power to the planned concession stand, as Smith said that the existing conduit was 100 feet too short.
“We’ll need to excavate and install additional conduit to turn the corner there and actually connect into the future concession stand,” Smith said. “Most of this cost is for the wiring itself. We have to install wiring from the main junction box down by the main electrical panel along the south side of Champion Trail, and that’s about 2,000 feet. So that’s where a bulk of this cost is coming from.” The electrical contract was also approved 6-0.
Council then unanimously accepted a bid from Bunger Steel to construct an irrigation pump building at a cost of $42,399; the original approved cost in July 2024 was $22,000. Smith said that the change resulted from what he described as a cost-saving idea by a town engineer to move the irrigation pumps closer to a pond.
“Part of the improvements to the irrigation will be the installation of a newer, larger pond, kind of south but more west of the existing wastewater plant,” Smith said. “The original plan had the pumps down in a vault down in that lower pond. By moving it to the newer pond up on top, the hill actually operates more efficiently to get the water from the treatment plant, where it’s created, into the pond and then pull it from the pond and send it to the park, versus having to go uphill and then back downhill again. This reduces the need for quite a substantial length of pipe and fittings excavation. The cost savings is substantial by doing this. The pump building originally was just a three-walled canopy with a cover. We are moving more in the direction of a completely enclosed building because it will be out there where hikers can access it. It needs to be secured and it will actually help protect the pumps from the elements.”
Next, the council unanimously nullified its previous July acceptance of two bids from Core & Main for force main supplies and irrigation supplies for $68,732.84 and $113,354.03, respectively, since Smith said the company had been
“unresponsive” to the town’s proposal for cost-saving changes and the contract was never signed. The council subsequently awarded the contracts to Ferguson Waterworks for $63,108.18 and $79,375.73 in a 6-0 vote.
The council also unanimously awarded a $67,307.59 contract to Traffic Safety Inc. for repainting road striping throughout the town. Smith suggested the council consider a future contract to retain the company on an ongoing basis.
“It will likely happen overnight because it’s easier to manage traffic,” Smith said of the restriping. “You know, we’re kind of getting into that time of year where the weather’s starting to warm up.”
In all, the council approved $682,945.53 worth of contracts.
