It’s a relatively light Bridgeport City Council agenda as there’s only one official item of business. While it may be a formality, it’s a pretty big piece of business.

 

Under new business at tonight's session, the city’s governing body will be asked to amend its contract with Green River Group LLC to include a 10 percent contingency. The cost of that is $359,367.50.

 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m.

 

At City Council’s July 11 meeting, Green River was the responsible low bidder for the earthwork of the new indoor recreation complex off of State Route 131 (Benedum Drive). The bid Council unanimously awarded during the last meeting was for $3,593,675.

 

Typically, Council includes a contingency fee as part of the approved bid. That didn’t happen.

 

“It was an oversight because the contingency should be attached to the contract,” said Bridgeport Mayor Andy Lang. “For us to be able to release funds on payment we need the total amount, which includes the contingency dollars.”

 

That doesn’t mean the project will be delayed. It also doesn’t mean that the project is expecting problems not included in the original contract. The contingency dollars are for the unknown that, as Lang knows from his years in business, can come up.

 

“We don’t expect any overruns. Green River Group is a good contractor and the city is glad to have them on board, but we still have to have that contingency fee in there,” said Lang. “The reason for that is sometimes you can have everything done correctly and something creeps up that no one from the engineers, the architects, the contractors or even the city, could have seen coming that adds dollars to a project and this is what you do to make sure there are funds in place to take care it. It’s standard for contracts the city is involved in. It usually covers an issue that is no one’s fault.”

 

While there is no additional formal business on the agenda, there will be a mayor’s report from Lang and City Manager Kim Haws will also have his report. There will also be a public forum for anyone wishing to address the city’s governing body.

 

The public comments are near the start of the meeting. The meeting will begin with an invocation by Pastor Jeff Parsons of Family of God Baptist Church.

 

Lang said Council will also meet in executive session following the regular meeting. He said no formal action will be taken at the conclusion of the session.

 

The meeting will be held at the Bridgeport Municipal Complex. It is open to the public.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo is of Bridgeport Mayor Andy Lang, while an architectural rendering is shown below of a potential complete buildout of the recreation complex.