New road service area contracts being sent out for bid, Mat-Su Assembly told

The Matanuska Susitna Borough is rolling out proposed new road service contracts that will include new provisions for the height of snow berms left in residential driveways and a new maintenance vehicle locator system so homeowners can monitor the progress of snow plowing or other road work.

The new contracts will be sent so out for bids by private contractors, Tom Adams, the borough’s public works director, told the Mat-Su assembly Tuesday, Feb. 6.

Later in the meeting borough manager Mike Brown offered comments on his suspension of the Mat-Su library book advisory committee after a Jan. 18 meeting descended into chaos.

Brown said Mayor Edna DeVries should never have to accept the conduct that was displayed at the meeting, which was disrupted by shouting.

The advisory committee had developed a procedure to review books that borough residents felt had questionable content inappropriate for young people.

At the Feb. 5 assembly meeting Brown said the committee had identified only four books felt to need examination. Three were reclassified from appropriate from ages 14 to 17 to 16 to 17, he said. Only one book was removed from the library.

He said other protections were also In place. Parents can log into the library’s website to see what books their children are checking out, for example.

On the road service contracts, Adams said he expects to have responses by March in time for consultation with the local Road Service Areas and for the contracts to be included in the annual municipal budget preparation.

There are several new features in seven new Road Service Area contracts going out for bid this year. The new provisions will be in contracts for the remaining seven Road Service Areas when they come up for re-bidding in the next contract cycle.

One new feature is that the contracts provide not only for routine maintenance but also road improvements where needed, Adams told the assembly. These are considered separate activities under existing contracts. Combining the two will create efficiencies for private road maintenance contractors.

Another new feature is that the contracts will be for one year with options of two one-year extensions if agreed by the borough and the contractor, he said. Currently the service contracts are for three to five years.

The borough is also removing the requirement for performance bonds posted by contractors, Adams said. The original idea of a performance bond, which requires a financial commitment by contractors, is to ensure that qualified contractors are given the business, the assumption being that a company being able to obtain a bond is a demonstration of its experience and capabilities.

However, it’s also the case that there are capable smaller contractors who are unable to secure bonds, Adams said. Removing the bond requirement will allow them to bid on service contracts, widening the pool of contractors able do the road work.

Performance contracts are intended as a protection for the borough and local residents that work will be done properly, but the new, shorter contract periods will allow a poorly-performing contractors to not obtain an extension after a year.

Also, these are routine service contracts, not for construction where performance bonds are more needed, Adams told the assembly.

Another new feature in the new contracts are a provision that allows road service area boards to decide the height of snow berms left near private property by maintenance operators. Options will include no berms or berms up to 12 inches. If the choice is made for no berms the service will be more expensive, but that is something the Road Service Area board can decide.

What’s also new is a maintenance vehicle locator system that will track vehicles as they work, and the activity being done, based on cellular locator systems.

The locator data will be fed into a borough web page so that property owners can monitor the progress of local snow clearing or other maintenance.

This isn’t quite real-time data for security purposes ad there are are also sections of Road Service Areas with is no or poor cellular service. However the system is less expensive than satellite-based GPS.