Retaining wall to begin construction, LED plan on hold – Evening Observer

The retaining wall on Lake Front Boulevard will be completed by Memorial Day 2021 according to a contract in discussion between Dunkirk Mayor Wilfred Rosas and contractor St. George Enterprises.

The Lake Front Boulevard situation, we are moving forward with that, I have made contact with the contractor, Rosas said during Tuesdays Dunkirk Common Council meeting. We have a new contract, we just added a couple of things to the other contract that was approved, basically two issues that were spoken about in executive session. The contractor is agreeing to have the project 100% complete by Memorial Day of 2021. The payment plan will be that were working with FEMA, the contractor has agreed to work with us with the FEMA payment plan.

The contract, which is still in negotiation, is expected to be signed soon and the supplies and materials will be ordered and the crew should be working on the project next week.

First Ward Councilman Don Williams questioned what might happen if the contractor is unable to finish the repair by the agreed upon date.

We considered all the options. There was a lot of behind the scenes communication, Rosas responded. To get to the point where were at now, there was a lot of work done, the process with FEMA and getting that plan approved was a long process.

Rosas added that the city could have decided to re-bid the project out after conferring various department heads, but ultimately what was decided that what was best for the city was to try to work with this St. George Enterprises.

In an effort to get them to agree we have been very lenient with the contract language, Rosas said. If he didnt agree then our options would be that there is no timeline in the contract or we bid it and find another contractor, if we did that wed jeopardize paying more for this project and wed also jeopardize the timeline with FEMA.

Another project that was also mentioned was the LED Replacement program the city was working on. A letter read during the public portion of the project from Cassandra Pinkoski questioned what buildings have been done currently, what buildings are slated the be completed, if street lighting is still a part of the project and what are the savings to date?

Rosas said LED updates were provided throughout the year but due to COVID, the $1 million in funding earmarked by the state and approved by the Financial Restructuring Board was withheld.

We have not received those funds, Rosas said. I have stopped the project until such time that we receive those funds. The good news is that I directed our Fiscal Affairs officer to contact Albany every week and this week the funding process is going to be moving forward, so we expect to receive funds soon. Ive been in contact with the contractor and he is ready to start as soon as we can start moving the process forward.

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Retaining wall to begin construction, LED plan on hold - Evening Observer