Otsego Township board members took a vote a long time in coming Monday, Aug. 14, and chose a contractor to do improvements on 108th Avenue.
Looking at the item on the meeting agenda under Old Business, township supervisor Bryan Winn said, “This is very old business.”
Board members chose Brad Thomas Excavating of Grand Junction, the low bidder on the project which had also been recommended by the Allegan County Road Commission staff.
“They’ve done other work in the county and the road commission said they’ve been satisfied,” Winn said.
The bid was $113,451 and Winn said that the total would be about $131,000 after the road commission’s portion was added. The township had appropriated $100,000 for the project in its budget.
“It’s a little more than we budgeted, but thankfully we won’t be paying as much on a fire truck as we expected, so we can rob Peter to pay Paul,” Winn said.
The work would relocate approximately a quarter-mile of the gravel road around a hill, close to the township line in the northeastern section of the township. The section of road will be moved about 70 feet north to avoid some of the steepest parts of the hill and the hill will be cut down.
Winn said the work had a stated completion date of June 2018.
“But they expect we can get it this year,” he said.
The board voted unanimously to award the bid.
The east end of the problem section of 108th lies within Gun Plain Township and residents have urged that township to do a similar project. Township officials have refused, citing the costs and small number of residents the work would benefit.
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