2026 9 8 Work Session Packet council Redacted

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PUBLIC WORKS 
 
TO:  Bridget Roberts, Interim City Manager 
FROM:  Kevin L. Helms, Project Manager 
Cc:  Ben Burchfield, Public Works Director 
DATE:  September 3, 2026 
SUBJECT: ARP Stormwater Grant GC Contract Amendment 
Background 
This project was originally designed to be comp rised of  planning, design, and construction -related 
activities. Costs associated with this project are funded through a combination of ARP Grant Funds and 
Local Funds. The City matches awarded grant funds at a rate of 15% up to the maximum available through 
the grant. The City is responsible for all costs in excess of the maximum available grant funds. The initial 
grant budget for both pr ofessional services and construction activ ities was $ 2,727,688.19, with 
$355,785.42 of that amount being the Cit y’s match. Of that total, $1,980, 000.00 was budgeted for 
construction-related activities. 
 
Request for Bids #25-13 was issued for construction activit ies related to  this project. Construction  
activities were planned for three separate sites as part of the overall bid . The sites were the property at 
Mayfield Lane and Ingleside Avenue , the detention pond at Cook Drive and N Ja ckson Street, and the 
upper pond at Regional Park. 
 
The bids were structured with a base bid as well as two alternates. Based upon staff recommendation, 
City Council awarded the bid to Wilson Construction Group in an amount of $2,031,554.99, which was the 
base bid amount. At a later date, it was determined that utilizing Alternate 1 was the best approach for  
the project, so the initial agreement with Wilson Construction Group  reflected the reduc ed cost 
associated with Alternate 1, which was $1,960,479.99. Neither the construction budget nor the motion to 
award the bid included contingency funds in the event changes were necessary during construction. 
 
Several issues were encountered during construction, with the majority of them related to unsuitable soils 
that had to be mitigated prior to the installation of various features. There were also added costs 
associated with the professional services component of the project. 
 
However, during a project closeout webinar that I attended, the presenters asked organizations that did 
not anticipate using all of their awarded funds to notify TDEC as soon as possible so that those funds could 
be made available to others who se projects had exceeded their original budgets. Because this program 
had a shorter than normal timeline for a project with so many steps to be completed, a number of 
organizations were required to return a significant amount of funding. Since I knew that the Athens project  
 
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