The City of Defiance opened bids for the Jefferson Street paving project on July 22 and received a single bid from Gerken that was 24% over the engineer's estimate.

Mayor Joe McCann told council that the lone bid puts the project in a difficult position: “One bidder, Gerken, was 24% over the engineer's budget or estimate,” he said, and that outcome makes it “very unlikely that it will get paid this year.” McCann said staff had scaled back the project before rebidding it and that the city will review the line items to identify why the bid was high.

Councilmembers said the single-bid result makes it hard to gauge whether the city estimate or the market price is the outlier. Councilmember Mast noted the difficulty of assessing the bid without comparisons. City staff member “Dave” (identified in the transcript as reviewing line items) began parsing submitted line items against estimates to look for causes, and Public Works staff will continue that review when lead staff return from vacation.

Possible next steps discussed were rebidding, further scope reduction, or delaying the project until funding or additional bidders are available. No new funding appropriation or formal decision to rebid was made at the meeting; staff will continue to analyze the bid and report back.

The Jefferson Street project scope discussed was from just south of the roundabouts on South Jefferson to East Second Street; traffic-control needs for the project were cited as factors that increase costs.