City awards 2 contracts

ELGIN — At Monday night’s special council meeting, the city awarded two contractors with jobs pouring a new sidewalk and removing a dying tree from the opera house lawn. 

Mayor John Stover led the discussion about the fate of the 98-year-old tree and the reasons for its removal.

“Part of the tree is rotten,” he said. “An arborist came out to look at it. Two of the limbs are rotten and another one hangs out over the street. If we take the rotten limbs off, it will look pretty ugly.”

The arborist said that there’s a 50-50 chance of the tree lasting a day, a month or a year.

Also, the roots of the old tree have pushed the concrete sidewalk up on the south side of the opera house. The mayor said one person fell on the sidewalk already, and he didn’t want that to happen again.

The council considered two bids, one at $1,750 from Genes Tree Service and the second at $810 from Parker Tree Service. After a brief discussion, the council awarded the work to Parker Tree Service of Summerville. The tree service will remove the tree and grind the stump. The wood will be preserved and given to Elgin High School.

The sidewalk on the south side of the opera house will be replaced and the council considered four bids ranging from $16,723 to $6,108. Councilor Alan Duffy moved to accept the lowest bid, submitted by Challis Concrete Construction from La Grande.

Stover reminded the council that Challis had poured the steps on the north side of the opera house and the city was pleased with the quality of work performed. Challis had also been hired by W.C. Construction to pour the ADA ramp at the opera house.

Duffy said it made sense that if Challis was contracted by W.C. Construction to do the Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramp on the south side of the opera house that he should also do the sidewalk on that side of the building, too. 

The council agreed and awarded the sidewalk contract to Challis.