Loganville votes to award contract for roadwork to Bethlehem-based construction firm

The Loganville City Council has approved a contractor for a half-dozen road projects, but not without some friction among councilmembers.

In a 4-2 vote, the council awarded the contract to DCBC LLC, a four-year-old Bethlehem-based construction and consulting firm that does asphalt paving, grading, and paint striping, and also offers earthwork and grading services for commercial and residential projects.

DCBC submitted the lowest bid for the work, at $330,001.30, and was recommended as the best choice for the job by Keck & Wood, an engineering consulting firm that works regularly with the city.

However, prior to the council vote on the contract, Councilman Wes Johnson, elected in November to his first council term, raised questions about the recommendation of DCBC for the work.

Noting that the next-lowest bid, from Madison-based grading, paving and utility contractor East Coast Grading Inc., came in at $333,695, slightly less than $3,700 above DCBC’s bid, Johnson wondered whether East Coast Grading’s longer time in business – state records show it has been incorporated since 2011 – should have been factored into the recommendation to the city for the best contractor for the job.

Johnson also noted that East Coast Grading has previously done work for the city.

Councilwoman Melanie Long agreed, pointing out that with East Coast Grading, “for $3,600, you get 10 or 11 years more experience.”

Long’s and Johnson’s arguments failed, however, to convince the rest of the council to consider an alternative to the Keck & Wood recommendation for a roadwork contractor, as City Manager Danny Roberts pointed out that the city routinely inspects contractors’ work, and can require them to address substandard performance.

Also, in a written report to the council, Keck & Wood noted that it had “made reference calls to several municipalities and prime contractors that have worked with DCBC LLC on previous paving projects and all the contacts had favorable things to say about their performance.”

Nonetheless, Long and Johnson voted against awarding the contract to DCBC, as Councilmembers Patti Wolfe, Bill DuVall, Keith Colquitt and Lisa Newberry voted in favor of the move.

“I just wanted it for the record,” Johnson said regarding his concerns about awarding the contract to an apparently less experienced contractor at a cost only marginally above the winning bid.

The work outlined in the contract covers Briar Run Court, Lakeside Court, Manor Ridge Drive, Big Sam Circle, Savannah Place and Ivy Creek Drive. There were a total of 10 bidders for the contract, with bids outside of DCBC and East Coast Grading ranging from $347,101.30 to $528,749.29.

In other business, Mayor Branden Whitfield swore in the newest member of the Loganville Downtown Development Authority, a group of council appointees charged with taking a leading role in the revitalization of the city’s downtown area between and along part of Atlanta Highway and Lawrenceville Highway.

The new appointee is Lee Munsey, a Loganville entrepreneur. She joins the DDA as the group is working to develop a request for proposals aimed at attracting developers interested in transforming a 1.38-acre swath of two city-owned downtown tracts at 254 Main St. as a spur to downtown revitalization.

The city council provided the DDA with a synopsis of its preferred vision for the 1.38 acres. That vison calls broadly for the tracts, to be reimagined as a “thoughtfully designed infill redevelopment project that injects excitement into our downtown core and promotes prosperity for generations to come at 254 Main St.”