Commissioners select Topkote Inc. for armor coating projects on nearly 12 miles of county roads

The Cheyenne County Commissioners selected a construction company from two sealed bids for projects providing armor coating to about 12 miles of county roads during Monday's regular meeting.

Three projects were included in the bids will cover 4.5 miles on County Road 8 between CR103 west of Lorenzo and the end of the asphalt, about 3 miles on CR8 between CR115 and CR121, and about 4.5 miles on CR111 from Sidney to CR32.

Doug Hart, Cheyenne County highway superintendent, was present for the sealed bid opening to provide feedback and answer questions from the commissioners.

The selected bid was from Topkote, Inc. out of South Dakota with a total cost of $71,640, or $5,970 per mile. The company will utilize county furnished materials for the projects.

The second bid came from Sta-Bilt Construction in Iowa, which offered to do the projects at $2,650 per mile and $31,800 total, but caused the commissioners some concern with the lack of information included in their bid.

"It's pretty vague," District 3 Commissioner Philip Sanders said. "I wish it'd be more specific."

Hart said the wording in Sta-Bilt's bid was also unclear whether they could perform the job within the current fiscal year and also did not include any bonding information.

"There's nothing there," Sanders said. "It's one sheet and we don't know anything about them. I don't want to end up with a big mess."

District 2 Commissioner Darrell Johnson made the motion to select the bid from Topkote, which Sanders seconded. District 1 Commissioner Steven Olsen said he "reluctantly concurred."

Hart said once the county purchases a chip spreader, it would be the last time they would need to go through this process.

"Amen," Olsen said.