June 1, 2009

Special Session

Bonifay, Florida

The Holmes County Board of Commissioners met in Special Session on the above date with the following members present: Commissioner Kenneth Williams, Commissioner Ron Monk, Commissioner Jim King, Commissioner Phillip Music and Commissioner Monty Merchant, Chairman of the Board.

Mr. Brandon Young, County Attorney, was present.

Angie Jonas, Deputy Clerk, was present and kept the minutes.

Chairman Merchant opened the meeting with the prayer and pledge.

Pursuant to public notice, the Board held a meeting to open the road project bids. Chairman Merchant opened the bids for CR 173N. The following bids were submitted:

Company	Base Bid	Alternate 1	Alternate 2	Additive 1
C.W. Roberts	$298,605.50	$209,653.50	No Bid	$309,749.50
Bullard Construction	264,644.00	208,740.00	No Bid	11,888.00

Mr. David Skipper, Engineer, explained that the additive alternate section varied because the additive section should have included the guardrail pricing, but that it appeared that C.W. Roberts had added the guardrail price to the base bid and Bullard Construction did not. Chairman Merchant stated that it appeared that Bullard Construction was the low bidder. Attorney Young advised that the Additive 1 section total would have been $276,532.00 for Bullard Construction when the base bid and guardrail amounts were added together. Mr. Skipper clarified that the base bids included concrete headwalls, Alternate 1 included sandbag headwalls, Alternate 2 was not bid on because it was a late addition and Additive 1 included the addition of guardrails. He asked that the Board authorize the Chairman to sign the agreement pending review. Commissioner Williams made a motion to award the low bid on the base bid of Bullard Construction, pending review and to authorize the Chairman to sign the agreement. Commissioner Music seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

(Construction Agreement)

Chairman Merchant opened the bids for the Roping Road project. The following bids were submitted:

Company	Bid
C.W. Roberts	$229,782.00
Bullard Construction	247,694.00

Commissioner King made a motion to award the bid to C.W. Roberts pending review. Commissioner Music seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Commissioner King asked when each project could begin. Both companies stated that work would begin once performance bonds and related paperwork were completed. Speaking regarding this topic were the following:

Mr. David Skipper, Engineer of Hatch Mott MacDonald

Mr. John Reynolds of C.W. Roberts

Mr. Jamey Owens of Bullard Construction

(Performance Bonds, Emergency Repair Declarations)

The Board discussed the Health Department building air conditioning issues. Ms. Holly Segers, Health Department Administrator, stated that a facility energy audit was being conducted by Gulf Power Company, and it had been found that there was not any insulation in the clinic area. She advised that there were four air conditioning units that cool the building, and presented the list of past repairs for each of them to the Board. She explained that Gulf Power had told her that one of the air conditioning units was not large enough for the area it was cooling and that another unit had “mismatched” components. Speaking regarding this topic were the following:

Mr. Wayne Cartwright of Wayne’s Heating and Air Conditioning

Mr. Cody Taylor, Clerk of Court

Ms. Jamie Carmichael, Health Department Finance Manager, stated that routine maintenance items could be paid for by the Health Department; however major repairs should be covered by the County. She also stated that the list of repairs did not include documentation of the services of Wayne’s Heating and Cooling as he was not an approved vendor for the State, and the County had incurred these expenses. Commissioner Music made a motion for Mr. Eddie Whitehurst, Special Projects Manager, to examine the issue to determine the best method of repair and also to go out for bids. Commissioner Williams seconded the motion. Chairman Merchant asked whether the Board would like the engineer to examine this issue and return to the Board with a proposal. Commissioner Music agreed, and revised his motion. Commissioner Williams revised his second. The motion passed unanimously.

(Air Conditioning Repair Cost List)

Ms. Holly Segers stated that the Heath Department parking lot was in need of repair as it had several potholes. She also stated that it appeared that an agreement with the Hospital may be near regarding Health Department parking availability at the former hospital site. No action was taken on this item.

The Board discussed the supplemental agreement with Metric Engineering for the 177A road project. Previously, the Board had discussed uses for remaining funds from the 177A paving project. This agreement included the following items: The addition of milled material for driveway maintenance throughout the project, increase and addition of drainage items, addition of guardrail improvements, installation of solar powered school zone flashing signals and replacement of pipe for driveway modification at Bonifay Middle School. Mr. Melvin Rhodes, of Metric Engineering, explained that the agreement was necessary to authorize payment to Anderson Columbia for the additional work that had been completed. Commissioner Williams made a motion to approve the supplemental agreement. Commissioner King seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

(Agreement)

Commissioner Williams stated that there is a need for sod on M.C. Carnley Road. He explained that there had been extensive wash out damage from recent rains and previous efforts to plant grass seed had been undermined by reoccurring rain. No action was taken on this item.

Mrs. Wanda Stafford, Emergency Management Director, updated the Board regarding a meeting she attended with FEMA representatives. She asked if it would be allowable for the unincorporated areas’ volunteer fire departments of Pittman, Pine Log, New Hope and Gritney to file for FEMA reimbursement for their storm related volunteer services under the County. She explained that the County would not disburse any funds to the Departments until they became available to the County from the State. She stated that FEMA representatives had indicated that it would be allowable for the Department to use manual style response logs to be kept for the record keeping requirements of reimbursement, since a consistent dispatch system was not used by the departments. Commissioner Williams made a motion to allow the unincorporated fire departments to file for reimbursement from the State for volunteer storm related services through the County. Commissioner Music seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Mrs. Wanda Stafford updated the Board regarding the Rum Road Bridge project. She stated that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would not repair the existing bridge, but would reimburse the costs for a single lane temporary bridge with approaches and removal of the old and temporary bridges upon project completion by the Department of Transportation (DOT). She asked if it would be allowable for Hatch Mott MacDonald to proceed with the completion of the bid specifications. Mr. Austin Harker, Project Monitor, stated that FEMA was unwilling to reimburse for the cost for approaches to a double lane bridge, but would reimburse for single lane bridge approaches. Mr. David Skipper stated that FEMA would reimburse for the demolition, design of the temporary bridge and the approaches. He advised the Board to coordinate their efforts with DOT so that there would be sufficient project workspace. He also stated that he had three alternative specifications for the project and asked the Board which specifications they would prefer. Attorney Young advised that there was a limited amount of time in which a project could be considered an “emergency” in reference to the bid process. Commissioner King made a motion to go out for bids for this project. Commissioner Music seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

The Board recessed for five minutes.

The Board reconvened and the meeting resumed with engineering presentations from the following companies: Metric Engineering, Greenhorne and O’Mara, Hatch Mott MacDonald, CDG Engineers and Associates and David Melvin Engineering.

The Board discussed the engineer of record final selection process. Commissioner Williams suggested a numerical ranking system where each commissioner would assign a numerical point value of one through five as follows: the first choice firm would receive a value of five points, the second choice firm would receive four points, third choice firm would receive three points, fourth choice firm would receive two points and last choice firm would receive one point. He stated that the Administrative Assistant would then tabulate the scores that each firm received to determine the top ranked firm. He explained that should there be two firms receiving the same average score, the firm receiving the most “five’s” would be awarded the position. Chairman Merchant stated that he would be in favor of the Board selecting two engineering firms of record. The Board agreed. Commissioner Williams made a motion to utilize the aforementioned ranking and tie breaking system to select the top two firms to serve as the County engineers of record. Commissioner Music seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Commissioner King stated that he had received a request from a Mr. James Martin for rock hauling. He asked the Board if it would be allowable for Mr. Martin to pay for the fuel and rock and for the Road Department to deliver it to him. The Board agreed by consensus.

Commissioner King stated that he needed to dig a drainage ditch near Mr. Dallas French’s property. The Board agreed by consensus.

The Board revisited Heath Department insulation issue. No further action was taken on this issue.

Since there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

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Clerk Chairman