HIGHFILL — Town council members, at a special May 26 meeting, accepted the bid of DECCO Contractors and Paving for road repairs on the town’s portion of Hendrix Road.

Council members Ryan Evans, Sandy Evans, Michelle Rieff and Paula Pautsky voted in favor of accepting DECCOs bid and awarding the contract to the Rogers company. Alderman Toby Lester was absent.

Three bids were received for the project: Tomlinson Asphalt of Fayetteville - $35,035; DECCO - $25,000; and Hutchens Construction of Springdale - $23,477.85. Though DECCO was not the lowest bidder, Highfill Mayor Stacy Digby recommended that the council accept DECCO’s bid because, in previous work for the town, DECCO added sloped driveway access rather than leaving it to property owners to raise their driveway access or need to drive up onto the edge of the pavement. The company was also recommended because it will be doing the county portion of Hendrix Road and, according to Digby, it made sense to use the same contractor since the bid was not much more than the low bidder.

The town will only have to pay 10 percent of the $25,000, with Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority paying 90 percent of the bill since the damage to the road was caused by truck traffic to build the regional wastewater treatment facility.

Though the town originally asked NACA to pay the full costs of the repairs, Digby said agreeing to a 90-percent, 10-percent split shows good faith and is fair since the road was not 100 percent before the construction project began.

News, Pages 1 on 06/01/2011