City will buy materials to avert supply chain delays
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, May 25th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
HERMISTON – The city of Hermiston has what Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan refers to as a ‘daisy chain’ of projects planned for the North First Place corridor. He says delays on any one project will impact all the others.
The city’s engineering consultant, Anderson Perry, suggested and the city council has approved that the city itself purchase all of the supplies that will be needed to complete the North First Plaza waterline construction so they can be ready when they are needed.
Morgan said buying the products in advance will make it possible for smaller local companies to bid on the work.
“If we go out and acquire all the materials ourselves, which represents 25 percent of the total project cost, it might give us some ability to help foster more local competition,” he said. “That total project is estimated at $1 million for the water main. When you get to those size of projects it does kind of weed out some of the more local construction contractors who are otherwise perfectly capable of doing the work.”
