Bids for fire station, SERESA building updates approved

ROSEVILLE — The Roseville City Council last week unanimously approved awarding bids for improvements to the South East Regional Emergency Services Authority located at 18961 Common Road and the fire station located at 17644 Frazho Road. Mayor Robert Taylor was excused from the meeting.

Michigan-based Quadrate Construction LLC was awarded the contracts for both projects at council’s Oct. 22 meeting.

Five bids for the project were received with Quadrate being the lowest for both projects. The bid of  $1,753,813 was accepted for the total cost of the SERESA building and $1,853,789 for the fire station. A 15% construction contingency cost is assigned to both projects for unforeseen circumstances.

The funds for the projects come from a bond measure that voters approved last November. These bonds are set to fund a range of projects from updates to the Department of Public Services building to a splash pad. At the council’s Sept. 10 meeting, Rain Drop Inc.’s bid was approved to put a splash pad in Rotary Park.

At the Oct. 22 meeting, Councilman Bill Shoemaker asked when the projects would be started.

“They’re going to work on both at the same time,” Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick Senior Project Architect Brandy Chirco said. “They plan to share the same site superintendent, so there will be constant back and forth with both projects.”

In an email following the meeting, City Manager Ryan Monroe said the hope is to get the projects underway by Dec. 1.

Councilman Steven Wietecha asked if the fire station would still be usable during construction.

Monroe said it would not and operations will be moved to the Fire Department Headquarters at 18750 Common Road. Administrative offices will be moved to the SERESA building, which will still be usable during the construction.

Fire Chief Keith Jacobs said at the meeting that trucks from the Frazho location would be moved to the Common Road location. He said a plan was in place for getting everything to fit.

“The services will not decline for the citizens of Roseville,” Jacobs said in an interview following the meeting.

 

Washington Street lift station has ‘catastrophic’ failure
One of the pumps at a Washington Street lift station had a “catastrophic failure,” according to City Manager Ryan Monroe at the Oct. 22 meeting. The station has three pumps.

Monroe said the failure happened the same day as the meeting.

“We’ll hopefully have a pump here in a couple of days as we’re expecting rain Friday,” Monroe said. “We’ll have to bring the approval, after the fact, to your next council meeting.”

Monroe estimated the pump will cost $30,000 but said this could change. The cost is able to be retroactively approved through the city’s emergency procurement ordinance.

In a statement following the meeting on Oct. 24, Monroe gave an update on the status of the new pump.

“The replacement pump has been ordered and we expect it to arrive in a few days,” he said. “We have manual pumps that are ready in case we receive rain over the weekend.”

The Eastsider went to press Oct. 25.

 

City adjusts marijuana policy for businesses
The Roseville City Council unanimously approved two changes to its ordinance regarding marijuana at its Oct. 22 meeting.

The first approved ordinance change, chapter 192 section 192-14, states that a marijuana business that makes changes to its operations, management or ownership laid out in its initial application will need to get city approval through an amended application.

Roseville City Attorney Tim Tomlinson said, following the meeting, this update does away with aspects of the city’s application process that mirror what is already done at the state level.

“We were just trying to streamline our process in regard to the transfer,” Tomlinson said.

If the city denies the amended application, a licensee can still operate as long as proposed amendments are not in effect and the license is otherwise valid.

Tomlinson said, for example, if a business shut down and the sale fell through, it could still operate under its existing license until it is amended or transferred.

“That’s the only circumstance I could really see it happening,” he said.

The second change updates chapter 192 section 192-42, allowing up to seven permits for a recreational marijuana business.

The change to the number of permits stems from an appeal made by Crave Cannabis and the city’s acknowledgment that there was an error.

“Instead of messing around with not awarding him a license for the error occurring, we felt it was in the best interest of the city to revise the ordinance to include one additional permit,” Tomlinson said.

During public comment, Lamar Jarbo from Crave Cannabis said he “strongly supported” the amendment.