Española city councilors approved 4-0 at its June 10 meeting the only submitted bid for emergency road repairs on Hunter Street and Calle Chavez. The lone bid came from Santa Clara Construction of Santa Clara Pueblo.
According to a letter from procurement officer Georg-Ann Salazar, the bid for each street came with two price tags, a base bid and a bid with options.
Street Supervisor Anthony Trujillo said the base bid was just to repave the street, whereas the options bid (almost double the cost) included laying down roller compacted concrete.
“(With the roller compacted concrete) you can then put down the base coat or pavement, whichever you decide,” Trujillo said Monday.
The bid for Hunter Street was $23,604 for the base bid and $42,972 with the options.
The bid for Calle Chavez was $38,101 for the base bid and $66,900 with the options.
Councilor Robert Seeds asked at the June 10 meeting why the project was an emergency.
Mayor Alice Lucero said the council had already approved the project and the council was only approving the bid.
“Mayor, I understand that but why does this letter say ‘Emergency Road Repairs’?” Seeds asked.
Trujillo answered from the floor that streets near the Rio Grande suffer from waves and need to be repaired to prevent further damage.
“Water breaks earlier created cracks,” Trujillo said. “Moisture comes from underneath because of the high water table along the river and lifts the pavement so we get waves like that.”
Again Seeds asked why it was an emergency, as he wished it would go through committee first.
Trujillo said, “If this isn’t repaired now, with the drought, more water lines will break and instead of replacing 160 feet of pavement, we’ll be replacing 250.”
The council approved the higher numbers in the bid, leaving Trujillo with the option to repave or use the roller compacted concrete option.