February 14, 2008
Alamo Industrial Park Study

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

Twelve engineering firms have submitted proposals to Lincoln County to do studies at the Alamo Industrial Park, the 228-acres the County bought from the Bureau of Land Management.

Plans were to use EDA (Economic Development Administration) grant monies to build the infrastructure for the industrial park. County Commissioners, realizing they did not have the required matching money, recently voted to not apply for an EDA grant as they did not want to put the County at risk by not meeting requirements of the grant process.

In the meantime, the County put out Requests for Qualifications from engineering firms and received 23 requests for the scope of work needed, and from those requests received 12 preliminary proposals.

County Grant Administrator Phyllis Robistow reported at the County Commission meeting February 4 that she, County Planning Director Clint Wertz and County Engineer Chuck Belcher have independently looked at each of the proposals and came to some conclusions on who could serve the county best. The next move is to meet together and decide on the top three proposals to be presented to the Commissioners for consideration.

“I think we have a pool now of various engineering firms that can do just about anything,” she said. However, for this particular project at the Industrial Park, Phyllis said, “We need somebody who can look at bare ground and envision what needs to be done. To take what we’ve already got done and build on it, tell us where we are right or wrong and give us some good dollar figures that we can go to a granting agency.”

She said the reason for hiring an engineering firm is to help the County determine what needs to be updated from studies done eight or nine years ago. “We don’t really know where roads would be, where we would lay our water and sewer lines, make sure we are doing things in accordance with environmental laws, etc.” The problem of getting electricity to the park is a separate matter all by itself.

In reading through and grading the 12 applicants, Phyllis said they have been looking at similar work the companies have done in other places, knowledge of the County, rural experience, technical ability, etc.

Commissioners stated it was their desire to interview the top three, invite them to come and make short presentations in an open meeting at the February 19 Commission meeting, and then make a final selection.