By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
With an eye toward saving money, officials in the Village of Waterford have announced a plan to look into partnering with neighboring municipalities and bid jointly for roadwork.
The initiative could begin as soon as 2012.
Village Administrator Rebecca Ewald and Director of Public Works Jeff Dolezal came before the Village Board on Monday, requesting direction on how to proceed with the effort.
While there are many finite points that still need to be worked out, Ewald said joint agreements with other municipalities could help increase the bottom line in Waterford.
Joint bids could go toward a number of road projects that municipalities tackle, including resurfacing and curb and gutter work.
“I think it’s worth exploring,” Dolezal said. “There definitely is some money that can be saved if we look into this further.”
Ewald said she has already looked into the logistics of such a scenario by examining how other communities throughout the state handle joint bidding projects.
There is no boilerplate scenario. Some arrangements are made with intergovernmental agreements, while others are done with less formality.
During Monday’s discussion, the board and village staff shared a few potential concerns, including the prospect of a worst-case scenario – a municipality deciding to withdraw from a project once bids have come in.
“I think you’d need to have some kind of agreement in place to ensure (the entire work covered by the bids) moves forward to completion,” Ewald said.
Other concerns raised include the disparities between municipalities in western Racine County. While some communities – including the Village of Waterford – have built-up infrastructure with sidewalks and curb and gutter, some neighboring townships have far less because of the communities’ layout.
Also, Dolezal said a more grandiose joint bidding project might squeeze out some smaller, local contractors because they would not be able to fulfill the full scope of the work sought, jointly by a pool of municipalities.
Realizing cooperative arrangements such as joint bidding are the wave of the future in municipal government amid ongoing fiscal constraints, the Village Board was receptive to Ewald and Dolezal’s proposal.
“Municipalities are going to have to work together to get things done,” Village President Tom Roanhouse said.
Trustee Judy Spencer said she would like Ewald and Dolezal to report back with more concrete numbers, in terms of estimated savings, as well as data about how other cooperative arrangements are structured.
Ewald said she already has been in dialog with the City of Burlington about joint bidding and plans to continue those conversations. She will report back to the board with updates on joint bidding as necessary.
“We can continue looking into this,” Ewald said. “Let’s crawl before we walk, let’s walk before we run.”
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