By JONATHAN SNYDER
Virginia Transformer Corporation and Meiden America Switchgear were awarded the transformer and breaker bids, respectively, for the Cherry Street electric substation project, the Board of Public Works and Safety decided Tuesday.
The Board of Works followed the recommendations of Bluffton’s contracted consultant Brad Edler and Power System Engineering. Both Edler and PSE reviewed all the received bids after their opening at the board’s June 25 meeting.
VTC’s bid for the transformers totaled $5,151,645, which includes offloading, assembly and testing of the transformers once they are delivered. WEG Transformers had the low bid at $4,759,800 for their quote, but WEG’s delivery time would be in March 2027. Virginia’s transformers are expected to arrive between October and November of 2025.
Meiden America Switchgear’s bid for the breakers was the low bid, totaling $210,822.22. Their breakers are expected to arrive between March and April 2025. Siemens’ bid totaled $216,955.56, while their expected delivery time was sometime between December 2025 to March 2026.
The reason to add the offloading, assembly and testing costs to VTC’s bid stemmed from a wish to avoid the risks involved with offloading. Utility Director Jon Oman understood the board’s plight, stating that VTC will stand by their warranty should something happen during the offloading process.
“I know there’s good crane operators around,” board member Josh Hunt said. “But this is definitely a specialized piece of machinery. This is not an everyday job.”
“If we choose to save $10,000 on offloading and we go back to this board and say something happens, that’s going to be a bad deal,” board member Scott Mentzer stated.
A discussion about municipal code relating to vehicle parking was also brought to the board by building commissioner Richard Triplett. Triplett took an ordinance control officer role before Melissa Zirkle’s hiring, during which he researched a way to prevent junk vehicles, boats, campers and trailers from being parked on the grass.
Currently, the municipal code states that a vehicle must be inoperable for it to be considered junk. Triplett presented that the wording makes it hard to prove that a car is junk. Triplett and the board have seen boats and campers parked on the grass in residential areas that have not been used for years at a time. Triplett cited Fort Wayne’s City Code which states that operable vehicles shall only be parked on an approved parking surface, such as a driveway or a connected surface to the driveway like a gravel patch.
Hunt recognized that ensuring a vehicle is registered would be “step one” in ensuring that the vehicles are up to date. While no official action was taken, the board agreed with the spirit of the Fort Wayne Code, with Mentzer and Hunt agreeing to refer the matter to the city attorney Tony Crowell.
“We have a responsibility to help keep our town maintained, but I don’t want to be heavy-handed,” Hunt said. “It’s a balancing act.”
Bluffton NOW! President Mike Lautzenheiser also discussed who picks up the electric bill for both the plaza and the recently completed Downtown Pathways project. Mayor John Whicker noted that when the plaza was built, a gentlemen’s agreement was made where Bluffton NOW! would pay the bill for one year, then revisit the issue later. That meeting never materialized until Tuesday’s meeting.
Lautzenheiser stated that since both projects aren’t owned by Wells County Revitalization, he thought the city would pay the bills. Since the bills are averaging about $50 a month for the alleys, along with the electricity used for events and activities held at the plaza being relatively low, the city approved a decision to pay for the electricity.
“It’s (the bill) is consistently low,” Hunt said. “It kind of surprised me how low it is, for as long as the lights are on.”
The board also approved a $4,300 transfer from the Fire Department’s Professional Meetings and Training line item to the Travel line item. Craig stated that both line items essentially do the same thing, with Travel covering out-of-state training.
Additionally, The board approved Street Commissioner Tim Simpson to hire Grant Nash for general labor in the Street Department. An SRF Claim for James S. Jackson totaling $1,341,896 for the wastewater treatment plant project was also approved by the board.
jonathan@news-banner.com
