The Cuba Board of Aldermen made a decision on Oct. 6 regarding surplus equipment they advertised but didn’t receive any bids.

During the July 7 meeting, the board approved a motion to post surplus items in the newspaper and bid them out, but some equipment didn’t receive a bid, so Public Works Supervisor Michael Montgomery asked the board to decide on next steps.

At first, he presented the board with either rerunning an ad in the newspaper or posting the equipment on Purple Wave, which is a website that allows people to sell items. They handle all the marketing, send auction specialists to photograph the items, which are sold as is, and buyers are responsible for transporting the item.

The main issue that many of the aldermen had was that Purple Wave doesn’t allow sellers to put a reserve, a minimum bid requirement, on auction items.

Ward 1 Alderman Louis Raineri suggested that if the city simply wanted to dispose of the items, they should upload everything to Purple Wave. However, Ward 3 Alderman Jeff Bouse expressed caution, as some of the items are quite expensive, and there’s a risk that the equipment won’t fetch its full value if sold on the website. He didn’t believe that taking that gamble best benefited the citizens of Cuba.

Another option that Montgomery originally presented during the July 7 meeting was using GovDeals, which, like Purple Wave, also helps sell items by making them accessible to a larger online audience. Unlike Purple Wave, GovDeals allows sellers to add a reserve to items.

A motion to sell the equipment on Purple Wave failed with only two votes in support. Ward 2 Alderman Jeremy Rosemann and Ward 1 Alderman Ray Mortimeyer voted in support.

A motion to sell the equipment on GovDeals was approved with a 4-2 vote. Both Rosemann and Mortimeyer voted against it.

Engineering services awarded for wastewater treatment plant

Two engineering bids were submitted, from Archer-Elgin and Robert Hogan of Meco Engineering, for an improvement project at the city’s wastewater treatment facility.

Montgomery and Mayor Pitts Lesesne independently graded each bidder on specialized experience and technical competence of the firm with respect to the type of service required, and the capacity and capability of the firm to perform the work in question, including specialized services within the set time limitations. They were also graded on the firm’s past record of performance with respect to factors such as control of cost, quality of work and their ability to meet schedules, as well as the firm’s familiarity with the area and their professional experience in designing wastewater systems.

Out of a possible 75 points, both Montgomery and Lesesne scored Archer-Elgin with a full score of 75 points. In contrast, for Meco Engineering, Montgomery scored them a 62, while Lesesne scored them a 60.5. The engineer selected would be paid out of a $50,000 Department of Revenue grant.

A motion to select Archer-Elgin as the engineering firm for improvements to be made to the wastewater treatment facility was approved by a 6-0 vote.

Montgomery said that Tony Hutson Jr. has been doing an excellent job in the natural gas department, is fully certified and works the on-call rotation, so he requested the board bump Hutson up to a Tech II position. A motion to move Hutson up to Tech II was approved by a 6-0 vote.