City officials have been able to trim the costs of Phase 2 of levee project

City of Decorah officials have been able to reduce the cost of Phase 2 of the Decorah levee recertification project by over $40,000.

Phase 1 of the project, which carried a price tag of $28,570, has been completed.  But Phase 2 carried an initial price tag of $228,600.  City Administrator Jerry Freund says he has talked with representatives of Mead & Hunt, the engineering firm in charge of the levee project, and has gotten them to agree to seek new bids on the part of the project involving soil borings.  The new quote is $40,666 lower than the original quote.

Other savings are more minor, but still slightly reduce the overall price of the second phase of work needed to get Decorah's levees certified as complying with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers standards.  Freund says Mead and Hunt will be sending the city a revised cost estimate soon--probably in time for the Decorah City Council to vote on the project April 4th.