ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — A motion was passed by the Robertsdale City Council at Monday night’s council meeting to award Empire Construction of Loxley the concrete bid for the Children’s Learning Center in Robertsdale with a price of $16,900.

Mike Lewis Construction also had a bid of $16,900 but because the City had worked with Empire before and knew the quality of their work, they went with them.

In a letter to the council, Mayor Charles Murphy commented “We are aware of the quality of work that Empire has performed in construction activities in our inspection area, and they are presently completing the concrete work on the new ARC (Association for Retarded Citizens) building at our industrial park. The other bid on this element of work is Mike Lewis Construction (of Foley) and we are not familiar with the quality of work performed by this company or their work history.”

Greg Smith, city engineer, said they already have temporary power and the building pad ready so now they are just waiting on the concrete and work should begin soon.

The council also approved the plans for the “Safe Routes to School” sidewalk project and will present them to Goodwyn, Mills, & Cawood Inc., a Montgomery Engineering firm, who is overseeing the construction of the project.

The base bid will place the sidewalk along U.S. Highway 90 with alternate routes along College Avenue. The City was awarded a $150,000 “Safe Routes to School” Grant funded by the Federal Highway Administration and Alabama Department of Transportation on July 15.

Inspection, engineering and administration fees in the amount of $30,000 will be paid by the City of Robertsdale, City Engineer Greg Smith said, and broken down, $13,800 will be for Engineering Design, $8,700 will be for Construction Inspection and $7,500 will be for Project Administration.

Once ALDOT (Alabama Department of Transportation) approves the location and plans, work can begin on Jan. 1, 2011 and the City has 12 months to complete the project, Smith said.

“It should be simple and straightforward once we get started. A lot of people walk up Highway 90 and it seems to be a high traffic area and our city would benefit greatly from it,” Smith explained.

The council also passed a motion to approve $51,945.20 in 2011 Utility account write-offs. Ann Simpson, City Chief Financial Officer, said in a memo to the council ““We budgeted $50,000 for uncollectible accounts in the 2011 budget. These delinquent accounts have been pursued for collection through a third party collection service for a minimum of 18 months.”

Simpson said these date back to 2007-08 and the people on the list stay in the system and are flagged and if they try to come back for service, they are expected to pay for their unpaid bill. “We usually get about 40 percent of what they owe and out of $12 million collected for utilities less than one percent goes uncollected, so that’s pretty good.”

In other business, the council passed a motion to surplus three rectifiers for the gas system that are not being used. Scott Gilbert, Public Works director, said they are brand new but do not fit with the system they are using and they had to get some different ones. Gilbert hopes to get $500 for them.

The council also passed two motions allowing the Robertsdale Rotary Club to use the Baldwin County Coliseum for two days in March for the rodeo and also use of the digital sign and the bleachers, and for the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce to use the coliseum on Jan. 19-20, 2011.

Sarah Duncan. director of the Robertsdale Senior Center, formally thanked the council for their donation to the center for the State Master Games held last month in Trussville. Duncan said they had a great time and came back with 37 medals.

Scott Gilbert also wanted to inform the council that garbage pickup would be on Friday, Nov. 12 because of Veteran’s Day on Thursday, Nov. 11.