DDA Sorting Through Fenton Welcome Signs Confusion

Some questions surrounding were answered at Tuesday’s Downtown Development Authority meeting, while members are still searching for other answers.

The group hired an independent review put together to determine whether the welcome signs were exactly what the city asked for.

The answer came back as yes….and no.

City officials thought they had asked for a thick decorative aluminum to be placed on top of the signs, while hollow pieces with a thin aluminum cover were installed.

City Attorney Stephen Schultz said the bid specifications put out by the city had ambiguous terms regarding the thickness of the aluminum at the top of the signs.

“The specifications do not ask for the same thing. It is open to interpretation,” Schultz. “Some people were bidding a one product, other were bidding another product.”

While there was a great difference in the price of the bids, the bid evaluation process was done correctly.

The DDA also questioned why some of the signs did not have reflective lettering, easier seen at night, which they believed to have asked for in the specifications.

DDA director Michael Burns said the city consultant Sue Grissim, of Grissim, Metz and Andriese Associates, approved modifications to the support poles for the club signs and the reflective vinyl during the process without the DDA’s consent.

The specification for the support poles for the club signs required the poles to be solid aluminum poles. However, after the bids were received it was learned having solid aluminum poles was not possible.

A representative from Grissim, Metz and Andriese Associates was not on hand at Tuesday’s meeting. The DDA plans to meet with the group as well as Universal Signs and Weaver Designs, who installed the signs and perhaps an independent firm to determine where and when the confusions and changes happened.

“I want to find out what the correspondence was between Grissim and Universal,” Schmidt told the board.

The DDA then unanimously voted to pay Universal Signs $60,211 of the $80,211 bill, retaining the final $20,000 until the DDA determines how the miscommunication happened.

The 19 signs were installed in October and the smaller signs have already been taken down once to make the lettering on the sign larger. The signs, which cost $102,510, are part of a $200,000 to $300,000 project to install more than 60 signs directing motorists through Fenton.