Six Festus city streets will be repaved this summer.
The Festus City Council voted 7-1 May 24 to award a $536,514.76 contract to Jokerst Paving, which is south of Festus, to complete the city’s 2021 street asphalt overlay projects. The company submitted the lowest of five bids for the work.
Asphalt overlay will be completed on Sunnyside Avenue, Pine Street, Westwind Drive, West Main Street, Sunshine Drive and North Fifth Street.
The work is scheduled to begin sometime in July.
Because the Jokerst bid was below the $660,000 the city previously budgeted for the project, the council decided to allow a change order and use any leftover funds to improve other roads.
Ward 4 Councilman Mike Cook said he objected to the change order, so he voted against the Jokerst bid.
However, in a vote later in the meeting, Cook voted with the rest of the council to authorize the mayor to sign off on the overlay project contract with Jokerst.
“I thought the project that was bid should have been treated as one project and any additional streets added – in my view – probably should be bid as a separate project,” Cook said. “I fully support Jokerst. I voted for their contract. I just wasn’t comfortable adding more streets (to the motion awarding the contract).”
City Administrator Greg Camp said the city attorney told the council and staff that the motion on the Jokerst bid was valid.
“Brian Malone (of the Lashly & Baer law firm in St. Louis) said he’s fine with doing a change order,” Camp said. “It’s still asphalt overlays at a fixed unit cost.”