ELLSWORTH-At their meeting this week, the Ellsworth City Council approved the plans, specifications, the form of contract and estimate of cost for the 350-thousand-gallon elevated water storage tank project. Bids for the work on water storage were reviewed by council members. Katie Sterk of Bolten and Menk discussed one of the bids received from this latest round of bid letting. The single bid received was from Phoenix Fabricators of Avon, Indiana in the amount of $5,401,047. The recommendation of Boten and Menk is to reject the bid as the engineer’s estimate was $2,887,115. Sterk discussed options with the council for revisions to the plans prior to another round of bid letting. She will attend the next Ellsworth City Council meeting with more information on alternatives. The Ellsworth council rejected the bid after their discussion.
A request from the Ellsworth Trinity Lutheran Church to hold a service in the Ellsworth Open Park Shelter House Sunday, September 7th was approved by the council. The service will feature the blessing of backpacks and pets at this service.
The Ellsworth City Council learned of the progress of a collaborative art project between the city of Ellsworth and Conservation Creations which is a local non-profit. Artist Siriaco Garcia has agreed to do two murals for Ellsworth. Conservation Creations director DeDe Henderson will be applying for an Iowa Arts Council Grant to help cover the cost of the two murals as well as through sponsorships for which Ellsworth City Clerk Heidi Eckers has sent letters to local businesses to solicit. To secure the artist an initial design fee of $250. The council approved the recommendation. This week the Iowa State University College of Design students arrived in Ellsworth on Wednesday for their first tour and met with community officials to begin the data collection process for the project during the academic year.