ShawneeDispatch.com

After more than two years of planning, the Shawnee City Council was scheduled to award a bid to a contractor Monday for the Downtown Streetscape project, a $2 million facelift for the downtown area at the intersection of Nieman and Johnson Drive.

But the city reported that just one bid came in by the due date and time, 2 p.m. Tuesday, and it was grossly over budget. Deputy City Manager Carol Gonzales said Miles Excavating offered the lone bid at $2,631,018.

An engineer estimated the project would cost $1.8 million. Gonzales said there was little to do but review the lone bid to make sure Miles Excavating understood the city's bid requests.

"The engineer will review the bid submitted for accuracy," Gonzales said. "We don't know what we'll recommend at this point ... We might not take it to the Council Monday."

The beginning of construction will mean the realization of a plan that the Shawnee Downtown Partnership has been discussing since September of 2002. LandPlan Engineering was hired to design the project, and a preliminary concept was presented to the city in May 2003.

The streetscape improvements will run along the north and south sides of Johnson Drive from Bluejacket to King and one block north and south of Johnson Drive on Nieman Road.

The plans include bump-out tree planters in the parallel parking areas, brick pavers along the sidewalks, a new traffic signal at Johnson Drive and Nieman and a fountain in front of City Hall. The project will be funded through the Johnson County CARS program, Community Development Block Grants and $1.6 million in city funds.

Preliminary streetscape plans were presented to the Council and approved Sept. 13, 2004. But before the final plans could be presented, owners of downtown businesses and property complained that the plan took away too much parking and that construction would likely hurt their businesses.

These concerns were addressed, and some changes were made to the plan to allow more parallel parking. The businesses' concerns also were noted in the specifications the city laid out in the requests for proposals.

If the bid were awarded Monday night, the contractor would be able to begin work almost immediately. Gonzales said the contractor would be given notice to proceed May 16, though the last weeks of May would likely include only preliminary work.

In the specifications set out in the requests for proposals, the city directed the contractor to complete the work in four phases to reduce the impact on businesses and events downtown.

The phases have changed slightly since first laid out in January due to delays in relocating utilities, and the city claimed the right to change phasing again if necessary. Gonzales said each phase is slated to take about a month, from June through September.

Now, the first area completed will be the southeastern corner of the intersection, followed by the southwestern corner and then the northeastern corner. The northwestern corner -- the area in front of City Hall -- would be the fourth and final phase.

"We didn't want to have things too torn up for Old Shawnee Days, which is one of the reasons we decided to do the east side first," Gonzales said.

Part of the contractor's responsibility will be to make sure that there is access to each downtown business during its business hours. Gonzales said that the partnership also has created signs designating downtown parking areas and may put them up as early as next week.

The future construction has already affected one business, however. Gonzales said the Fine Arts Theatre has indicated it will delay its planned opening until the end of the summer, rather than open and then have construction on its sidewalks.

In January, Wade Williams, spokesman for the Fine Arts Group, said he hoped to open the theater by Memorial Day.