Second round of bids on website redesign to be studied

Linn County Commissioner Alison Hamilton and Economic Development Director Chasity Ware have been pushing for a redesign of the county's website. Above is a portion of the county's current home page for Linn County government. (Screen capture linncountyks.com)

By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – On Monday, June 2, Linn County Economic Director Chasity Ware presented the second round of three bids for the remake of the county website. 

At the April 28 meeting, two bids had been opened and read publicly. However, because one company’s mailed bid did not arrive by the bidding deadline, and because of discrepancies with the request for proposal (RFP), it was decided that a new RFP be issued.

The bids read on Monday, June 2 were:

• CivicPlus, Manhattan, Kan. – The CivicPlus bid was $26,001.40 for the one time investment. The annual recurring service charge was $5,919. This bid was unchanged from the bid opening on April 28.

• Redlogic, Mound City – The total bid of $39,000 fixed costs was broken down into sections: contract signing kickoff $7,800; design approval $7,800; development complete $9,750; contact migration and Q&A $7,800; public launch $5,850. Charges for ongoing monthly services were $450 a month and quarterly accessibility audits, $750 a quarter.

Redlogic’s bid on April 28 was a fixed package price for website design of $22,860.

• Social: Managed, Louisburg –  The estimated design and build investment of $23,971.50 with a monthly hosting cost of $99.

Ware will work with Information Technology (IT) Director Chris Martin to develop a spreadsheet with the bid figures put in categories to compare what the companies are offering. She will bring that information back to the commissioners in two weeks.

At the April 28 meeting, she told the commissioners that with Redlogic the county would own the website and hourly rates would be charged for additional help. She said that CivicPlus will own the website and that the $5,919 annually would include any updates that need to take place.

At the April meeting, she pointed out that the difference between the two companies is that Redlogic and CivicPlus was that CivicPlus specializes in website for governmental entities while Redlogic does a couple of government websites.

At the May 12 meeting, Ware had told the commissioners that some questions had been brought forward about the original RFP. One of the biggest things was they were not comparing apples to apples. We’re comparing apples to oranges with the three proposals that came in, said Ware.

The commissioners voted to recall and close the original RFP at the May 12 meeting and approved Ware sending out another RFP on May 21 that would run for two weeks.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Learned from Public Works Director Jesse Walton that dust control has been moved to Thursday, June 5, and Friday, June 6, this week due to rain.

• Learned from Walton that the bids for the courthouse roof would be ready to open next Monday, June 9.

• Learned from Walton that he had talked with Gabe Pfefferkorn about County Road 1095 and would be meeting with him about the costs of paving 1095 and 1850 Roads so he could bring the numbers to the commissioners.

• Heard a brief introduction from Ben Souza, the new planning and zoning director.

• Gave asphalt supervisor Tod Moeller the approval to proceed with repaving the six roads the he considers the most desperate before deciding which other roads can be worked on. Moeller gave the commissioners the cost of $8,318 as the cost of employee and equipment usage at Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rates per 8-hour day.

He said that the costs to repair the roads was $12,000 anytime they set up to do a section of road that is 150 feet by 24 feet.

• Heard from Walton that the person he had been working with at KwiKom was no longer there but he was working with a new person who and he planned on having the answers to the commissioners in a week.

• Approved two burial permits requested by Linn County Rural Water District No. 3. The first was to bore under 1095 Road by 2300 Road to install a water line. The second was to bury a water line going west on 2300 Road to the first driveway. 

• Approved paying an invoice of $8,642 to Terracon for work at the CD landfill. This money will come from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for the vertical expansion of the landfill.

• Hired Christina Hart as a field appraiser at the hourly rate of $17.99 pending her passing her pre-employment screening. 

• Approved the transfer and certification approval of rules for oil and gas.

• Approved the transfer and certification approval of rules for personal property.

• Approved the transfer and certification approval of rules for real property.

• Adjourned at 10:50 a.m. to hold a workshop with the county fire chief and city fire chiefs that was scheduled to be held after the commission’s regular business meeting, which usually ends at noon or after. 

• Went into an executive session with Walton for non-elected personnel job performance with the county counselor, three commissioners, and County Clerk Danielle Souza for five minutes

• Went into executive session for financial with the county clerk, accounts payable clerk Stacy Fromdahl, three commissioners and county counselor for 10 minutes.

• Went into executive sessions with Ware, three commissioners, counselor for trade secrets for seven minutes.