MOULTRIE, Ga. — The question for Colquitt County commissioners isn’t “How much does it cost to pave a parking lot?” It’s “How much should it cost to pave a parking lot?”

The Board of Commissioners wants to pave three parking lots, but when bids came back Jan. 27, one of the three cost dramatically more than the others. Commissioners have been at odds ever since over the proper response to that difference.

All three projects were bid out together, but each bid split out the cost per project. For example, the lowest bid came from Hancock and Sons, who offered to pave the expansion at the Maintenance Building for $181,064, to create a new parking lot across Second Street from the Courthouse Annex for $290,799, and to make a parking lot at the new Public Works Building for $822,988 — a total of about $1.3 million for all three. 

Bids from Jim Boyd Construction and Reeves Construction were higher for each project, but the Public Works parking lot dwarfed the other two projects in their bids too.

Part of the expense is because Public Works will actually have two lots. The proposed lot for employees’ vehicles is as large as the lot proposed on Second Street, plus there’s a fenced-in lot for the Roads and Bridges Department’s equipment that’s an acre or more, depending on which version of the plan is finally approved.

Another question for commissioners is whether a parking lot for road equipment needs to be paved with asphalt, the most expensive option that’s been presented, or if a cheaper paving material will be good enough.

The biggest part of the expense, though, is dealing with the dirt under the proposed parking lot. While the county engineer has made recommendations that would meet engineering specifications, they also will be very expensive. Commissioners are debating how important those specs are for this particular use.

“I want to spend enough money to do a good job and look like we have a professional organization,” Commissioner Mike Boyd said.

“On the least traveled road in Colquitt County?” Chairman Denver Braswell shot back.

What lies beneath

The soil under the proposed Public Works parking lot was a hog farm years ago, Boyd said, and the soil under it is loose.

Roads and Bridges Director Stan Kirksey — whose department will be housed at the new building — said a probe went eight or nine feet into the soil before hitting a surface solid enough to build on. He said hundreds of dump trucks of dirt would have to be dug out and replaced with proper material to provide a solid surface for the parking lot. His estimate was based on recent work at Greenfield Church Road, where he said the county Roads and Bridges Department moved 1,200 to 1,500 truck loads of dirt to prepare the road for paving.

Commissioner Chris Hunnicutt was not convinced. Hunnicutt, a farmer, said when he built a peanut buying point in the county the parking lot was made of dirt. The dirt was compacted and graded so water would drain off, and that’s been sufficient for the trucks, tractors and loaded peanut wagons there. He said a similar solution should work at the Public Works Building.

“It won’t be to engineering specs,” he acknowledged, “but it’ll be fine. You can drive on it.”

A study committee

After the bids were presented to the commission Feb. 15, Braswell named commissioners Boyd, Hunnicutt and Johnny Hardin to a committee to study ways to save money on the project. 

The committee met with the county administrator and county engineer on Feb. 17 and 23, and the engineer offered them three adaptations of the original plan based on their input. The biggest difference among the plans is the paving material to be used — asphalt, a rock aggregate called GAB, or regular rocks. 

The committee also suggested the equipment lot be made larger, which would actually add to the cost, but the committee members didn’t think one acre was enough to contain all of the department’s equipment, which includes pickup trucks, small and large trailers, and heavy equipment like excavators, road graders and dump trucks.

The county engineer recommended the asphalt option, which would be $50,000 more than originally bid because of the expansion of the lot.

“[It’s] durable, cleaner and the proper long-term solution to reduce maintenance cost overall,” County Administrator Chas Cannon read from the county engineer’s report.

The committee offered that recommendation to the full commission along with the proposal that uses GAB. The GAB proposal would cost $81,000 less than originally bid, and it allows the option for the county to pave the lot itself in the future. However, it estimated it would cost the county $98,500 to do so.

Fencing

All the proposals call for the equipment lot to be fenced in. A question about whether that was necessary was quickly shot down.

Mac Lawson, the county’s maintenance director, said there is already an issue with people leaving contraband to be picked up by inmates on work crews. If the vehicles were not secured, it would be like an invitation to hide drugs or a weapon in them, he said.

Commissioner Paul Nagy said the department has $3 million worth of capital equipment. “It just makes sense to me to secure it,” he said.

The plan calls for commercial 9-gauge fencing, but the committee offered to reduce that to 11-1/2-gauge, the same fencing used at residences, which would save $26,000.

The employee lot

In the original plan, presented months ago, the architect called for a retaining pond on the site, which resulted in fewer employee parking spaces than the current Public Works building has. When that plan was put forward, the commission urged the removal of the pond in favor of a pipe that would divert water to an existing pond nearby. That change was expected to save the cost of digging out the new pond.

The commission did not, however, tell the architect what to put in the pond’s place, so he laid it out with more parking spaces. The plan on which the companies bid has 80 parking places in the employee lot, but commissioners said the Roads and Bridges Department doesn’t have half that many employees.

“If he [Kirksey] fills all his unfilled positions, he’ll only have 39 people,” Braswell said.

The committee proposed adding a cut-through between the employee lot and the equipment lot, which would take a few parking spaces away but still leave many more than the department currently needs. Commissioners proposed the removal of a row of spaces — approximately 20 — to save money, but the change added up to only a few thousand dollars.

Kirksey argued to keep the spaces in case the county decides to stop using inmate work crews and replace them with paid employees. He said the inmate crews are unreliable: Many inmates have never worked at all, he said, and almost none have worked in road construction. Other than Kirksey’s comments, the county has not indicated it’s looking at eliminating inmate labor.

While commissioners were discussing the paving of the equipment lot using something other than asphalt, they also entertained thoughts of doing the same on the employees lot.

“Mike Boyd’s business doesn’t have a paved parking lot,” Braswell told The Observer after the meeting. “Chris Hunnicutt’s business doesn’t have a paved parking lot. My business doesn’t have a paved parking lot.”

Do it yourself

Braswell said he had been under the impression the county was going to pave the parking lot itself. The Roads and Bridges Department has all the necessary equipment and personnel. Hunnicutt likewise said the county would save money by doing the work itself.

“That’s how every business in Moultrie and Colquitt County does it if they’re not associated with government,” Hunnicutt said.

Kirksey said all the department’s crews are busy making road repairs. Replacing the loose soil to establish a solid foundation would take at least some of the crews away from that to work on the parking lot for three to four months.

“I can’t see us stopping work for the taxpayers to do a parking lot,” Boyd said.

Boyd also pointed to the GAB proposal, which would save the county $81,000 but leave the door open for the county to asphalt the parking lot itself later. The estimated cost of the county paving the lot with asphalt was $98,500. Boyd said that shows the private company can pave the lot cheaper than the county crew doing the work itself.

No decision yet

Responding to a question from Braswell, the county administrator said all three bids are good for 180 days from the opening Jan. 27, which gives them an expiration date of approximately July 26. Braswell said that gives commissioners time to continue working on the plans to save the taxpayers as much money as possible.

He said so many of the county’s issues are framed with urgency that requires an immediate decision. He said this one doesn’t.

Boyd disagreed.

“Delays in construction are doing nothing but costing us money,” he said, citing inflation that started hitting construction supplies two years ago and now includes virtually all products.

The other consideration is a legal one: The county is able to make changes to a project and negotiate with a chosen vendor up to a point. Too many changes alter the “scope of project,” at which point state law will require the whole project to be re-bid. Commissioners are still talking with County Attorney Lester Castellow to figure out where that line is before they cross it.