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Politics & Government

Kendall County Eyes Aurora Blacktop Projects

The county's Highway Committee creates a plan for the eight projects awarded to the troubled Montgomery paving company.

Kendall County set a deadline for : Pick up your eight paving contracts by June 5 or we’re going to consider giving the projects to the second-lowest bidder.

On April 17, the county awarded the Montgomery company $2.8 million in contracts for eight projects – four for the county and four on behalf of area townships. About that time, Aurora Blacktop’s owners announced this season and were searching for a new owner.

Since then, they have not picked up the county contracts, nor announced a new owner, said Fran Klaas, director of the county’s .

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“If we don’t have an answer by June 5, we’re going to either have to go with the next lowest bidder or rebid,” Klaas told the county board Highway Committee on Tuesday.

If the company is sold, the new owner honor could use the contracts at those prices.

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Rebidding the projects could cost county leaders precious time for this construction season, but the second-lowest bid came in at about $148,000 more. Plus, leaders in one of the townships have indicated they don’t want to do the project if Aurora Blacktop isn’t the contractor, county leaders said.

Rumor has it a number of local companies are looking at purchasing Aurora Blacktop, Klass said, and all have previously done work in Kendall County.

“There is no guarantee, but from what I’m told, they’ve all worked for the county before,” he said.

After the June 5 deadline, county leaders plan to explore cashing the bid bond. The bond provides 5 percent of the total project costs if the company awarded the bid doesn’t enter the contract. In this case, 5 percent of $2.8 million is $140,000 – or about the difference between Aurora Blacktop and the second-lowest bidder.

The matter will be on the County Board’s agenda June 5.

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