After a miscommunication with a subcontractor on the Smith Street project in Truesdale, city officials are reconsidering the way they award bids and vet contractors. 

A subcontractor hired by the bid recipient for the project, TS Banze Construction Services, installed the wrong size of piping in some of the water inlets on the street project that are being used to replace the drainage ditch on the street, according to Truesdale Mayor Jerry Cannon. 

Those issues are being rectified and were the subject of discussion at the Oct. 23 board meeting. 

Board members and Cannon were concerned with the miscommunication and wanted to be more careful in the future when considering subcontractors and engineers on city projects. 

“This is the second time, basically the third time that we’ve been burned that I can think of with ‘just okay’ and this one almost got by,” said Alderman Mike Thomas. “So just okay is not gonna get you a contract with the city.”

TS Banze was awarded the bid at the June 26 board meeting and recently started construction. 

Cannon said while it was implied that TS Banze would be hiring subcontractors, the city thought it had clearly communicated the requirements for the project that were not followed. 

Cannon also asked City Engineer John Choinka, who was present at the meeting, to keep a closer eye on the project in the future. 

Moving forward, the discussion turned to city officials requesting more information from contractors when receiving and awarding bids. 

“We weren’t involved in who that subcontractor was and in the future maybe we need to be more involved,” said Cannon. 

While questions were raised about prohibiting subcontractors Cannon said they would like to require notification of subcontractors so they can conduct their own “due diligence.”

He did note that TS Banze was cooperative in getting the issue fixed once it was brought to their attention and the project was still scheduled to be completed on time with phase one finishing later this year.