It's shaping up to be a lucrative summer in Kenner for Fleming Construction Co., which on Thursday night won approval for a public works contract by the City Council for the second time in three weeks. An ordinance approving a third contract was introduced Thursday and will be up for vote Aug. 15. Fleming was deemed the lowest bidder...
It's shaping up to be a lucrative summer in Kenner for Fleming Construction Co., which on Thursday night won approval for a public works contract by the City Council for the second time in three weeks. An ordinance approving a third contract was introduced Thursday and will be up for vote Aug. 15.
Fleming was deemed the lowest bidder on the three public-bid solicitations for sewerage projects involving lift station and force main improvements; together the contracts are worth almost $4 million. The projects are located at the intersections of Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Indiana Avenue, and West Loyola and West Stanford drives, as well as on Canary Ansas Drive. The city is receiving funding for the projects from a $21 million loan from the state Department of Environmental Quality.
The contract awarded Thursday is for work at the Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Indiana Avenue station. Fleming's low bid was $1.55 million.
Fleming has a fan in Kenner City Councilman Kent Denapolis, whose district includes the sewerage system project at West Loyola and West Stanford. Denapolis publicly praised Fleming at the council's July 11 meeting, before the council's vote approving the West Loyola and West Stanford force main project. The company's bid on that project was $1.75 million.
Yet Denapolis abstained from that vote because his office furniture and supply business had previously contracted with Fleming. Denapolis said in an interview that Fleming had worked on several large projects in his district through the years.
"It's not that I endorse them," Denapolis said, referring to his public statements in council chambers about the firm's bid on the project. "But I think they ought to be told they have a done a good job."
The third contract is for work at the Canary Ansas lift station. Fleming's bid on that contract, also the lowest received by the council, is $641,000.