By Jim Bloch
The city of Port Huron is preparing to spend $967,730 on a series of upgrades to the control panels at the city’s water plant.
The city council voted unanimously at its regular meeting Sept. 22 to approve a contract with the local firm Ainsworth Electric, Inc. to do the work.
The city advertised the project on its website and on the Michigan Intergovernmental Trade Network. Three contractors attended the pre-bid meeting, but Ainsworth was the lone bidder.
“James, do we know why any of those attending did not submit bids?” asked Mayor Pro Tem Sherry Archibald, addressing City Manager Freed, as heard on the recording of the meeting posted on YouTube.
“It happens quite often,” said Freed. “They’re not interested in the project, or it’s more than they can handle, or something like that… We are seeing that across the board. If you look at some of our road projects, we’re seeing the same one or two companies bid. We are trying to solicit (firms) when we have bids. So, we call firms and let them know they might be interested. I personally have talked to two people who do big road projects and asked them to please consider bidding with us.”
Getting more bidders is important to the city’s bottom-line.
“As you know, competition drives down costs,” said Freed.
Freed said that the lone bid was about $217,000 above the amount budgeted for the project. The 2025-26 Water Filtration Plant line item for the work is $750,000.
“The project has to be done,” Freed said. “Ainsworth currently works in the facility. They know the facility well and are very capable of doing the project.”
Freed discussed the project in more depth in his memo to the council about the work.
“Eramosa International, Inc. provided professional engineering services to complete contract bid documents to perform electrical upgrades and replace three power panels and a motor control center at the Water Filtration Plant and a motor control center at the North Service Center, including conduit and wiring, based on their condition assessment,” Freed wrote. “The project includes replacing outdated panels that have rusted or deteriorated, removing and replacing aged and spliced cabling, replacing faulty breakers and replacing grounding lugs to minimize risk of failure. Temporary power is required for each panel replacement to maintain processing. The work is scheduled
primarily on the off-shift to minimize disruption in the water filtration plant’s operations.”
Eramosa found no technical issues with Ainsworth’s bid and recommended hiring the company.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
