- April 29, 2024
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One week after the City Council publicly criticized S.E. Cline Construction Inc. for its work on city sidewalk and water-control projects, city officials on Tuesday unanimously awarded the company with a $229,157.50 contract to repair a weir on Royal Palms Waterway.
The discussion of fixing the weir led to a debate as to whether the city should declare Cline Construction a “nonresponsible” bidder, which would not allow the company to bid on future city projects.
City Manager Jim Landon brought up the Belle Terre Parkway path project, which was supposed to be completed in 2011, but is still being worked on.
Although the city has not had many problems with water-control structure projects, there have been several delays and hiccups with sidewalks projects, according to Landon.
As a result of last week’s meeting, Scott Sowers, president of S.E. Cline Construction Inc., visited with City Council members leading up to Tuesday’s vote.
In regard to the Belle Terre sidewalk, Sowers said Cline experienced several obstacles with the Florida Department of Transportation. He confirmed Tuesday that if all things go according to plan, the next phase of the sidewalk should be completed within the next two weeks.
City Councilman Bill Lewis, who was the most vocal last week that the city should not use Cline on future projects, backed down on his stance Tuesday. “Based on our meeting we had, we came out with the understanding that communication is one of the biggest parts of a (working) relationship,” he said. “I think that one word can solve a lot of the problems we have.”
Landon, however, didn’t back down. Often times, he said, Cline will pull crews off city projects to work on other projects. The city’s work then sits idle, Landon said.
“What we need Cline to do is go get the projects done and get them done quickly for us ... and that’s just the bottom line,” Landon said. “Treat us like a customer they care about.”
In the end, the City Council, with a 5-0 vote, awarded the weir contract to Cline, but not without advice from Mayor Jon Netts. “There probably needs to be better communication,” he said. “Shortcuts are not always a good thing.”
After the meeting, Sowers said he wanted to thank the City Council for taking the time to understand the entire story.
“We are a good, hardworking group of people, and we take extreme pride in our work,” Sowers said. “We value the city as our customer and do everything we can to work in good faith and toward a common goal. We are very pleased with the City Council’s decision.”
County rejects Netts’ sales tax proposal
In a letter to the city, Flagler County Board of County Commissioners Chairwoman Barbara Revels officially rejected Mayor Jon Netts half-cent sales tax proposal.
Netts said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting: “They continue to contend their needs are important, and they need the lion’s share of the sales tax revenues.”
Netts believes that the County Commission will vote for the state default formula in via a supermajority vote (at least four votes in support) sometime after the Nov. 6 elections, but before the newly elected commissioners take office Nov. 20.
