Dixon City Council accepts $1.7M bid for Oakwood Cemetery building project

DIXON — The Dixon City Council on Monday unanimously accepted a $1.7 million bid for a building project at Oakwood Cemetery.

The project includes the construction of a new maintenance building, demolition of the old maintenance building, and the removal of old retaining walls and concrete structures that are scattered throughout the site. That land will then be redeveloped and sold as cemetery plots.

“This is a way to get the new building built and the building site ready to be repurposed when we’re finished,” Matt Heckman, public works director, told the council.

The project went out for bid in June and four bids were received. The city accepted the lowest bid of $1,690,337 from Sjostrom and Sons of Rockford. Using capital funds, the city had budgeted $1.7 million for the project.

Sjostrom and Sons has predicted a 154-day construction cycle for the project, but the schedule has not yet been confirmed. As soon as contracts are in place, “we hope to be able to move fast,” Heckman said.

When the roll call vote on the motion to accept the bid was carried out, all four council members voted yes, ending with Mayor Glen Hughes, who said, “Definitely yes.”

The project has “been on the stove cooking for over a decade,” Heckman said in an interview with Shaw Local. It’s not complicated, but there were a lot of varying opinions about the size and scope of the project, he added.

In other business Monday, the council:

• accepted the low bid of $640,370 from Helm Group Civil Constructors of Freeport for the resurfacing of Lincoln Avenue and Brinton Avenue as part of the fiscal 2025 Rebuild Illinois street resurfacing project using RBI and infrastructure funds. Construction is expected to begin mid-August, Heckman said. At the City Council meeting on June 4, the council accepted a bid to complete the general maintenance portion of the project. The city is devoting about $1.8 million to street rehabilitation this year, Heckman said.
• approved the purchase of six sets of structural fire-fighting turnout gear for the Dixon City Fire Department for a total of $25,544 from Dinges Fire Company in Amboy. This includes four replacement sets and two new sets for two new employees, Fire Chief Ryan Buskohl told the council. The city budgeted $28,000 for this expense so the department is $2,455 under budget.
• approved the annual renewal of a one-year agreement between the city of Dixon and Google Workspace through Onix Networking Corporation for a total of $28,805, which is $3,894 under budget. Google is the current email system that is used by city officials, including the library, water and wastewater departments. The expense will be split between the general, library, water and wastewater funds. Quotes were requested from multiple vendors for a one- or a three-year term. The city’s current vendor, Onix Networking Corporation, came back with the lowest price. Allen Philhower, information technology manager, told the council that they are requesting a renewal for one year only to allow the library time to work on obtaining discounts for their portion and hopefully splitting their licenses from the remainder of the city.
• accepted a bid of $96,628 from Visu Sewer LLC to complete sanitary sewer rehabilitation from Division Street to Spruce Street using wastewater capital funds. The city’s wastewater department inspected the sewer and found uneven joints, Josh McNitt, wastewater treatment manager, told the council. “They can smooth it all out and line it so we don’t have to dig it up,” he said. The city budgeted $100,000 for the project.
• ratified a grant agreement between the State of Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board and the city of Dixon that awarded the Dixon Police Department $34,488 to cover the cost of body-worn cameras and in-car cameras. The terms of the grant don’t allow for it to cover the cost of storing that equipment, but “hopefully next year they’ll readjust that and we can apply for that too,” Police Chief Steven C. Howell said. The department applied for the grant about a month ago, received an email detailing the award amount Thursday, and had to have the agreement signed by the end of the day Thursday. The department had conversations with City Manager Danny Langloss, Heckman and the council to get the agreement signed and sent off, Howell said.