The Mandan City Commission on Tuesday awarded a $1.4 million bid for the construction of Longfellow Park to Industrial Builders Inc. of Fargo.

Industrial Builders will complete pavement, sidewalk, retaining walls, irrigation, plantings, lighting and fencing for the project.

The park will be located below the Mandan side of the new Liberty Memorial Bridge.

The city's cost share for the work is $149,137.

City administrator Jim Neubauer advised the commission that the North Dakota Department of Transportation accepted bids earlier this month, and Industrial Builders was the low bidder.

Del Wetsch, director of the Mandan Progress Organization, was given the nod to proceed with a rescheduled Buggies-n-Blues car show after many events were interrupted June 6 because of poor weather. It will now be held July 25 and 26.

Wetsch heralded it, "Buggies-n-Blues, Take 2" as he made his request for the Musicians Association.

"We really didn't expect 40-degree weather and some snow west of town," he told commissioners of organizers' initial date. He assured them the bands and concessions were lined up for the rescheduled event.

Commissioners approved a beer garden and street dance application for Dykshoorn Park.

Other requests granted by the commission were:

n Police escort for the parade of vehicles that Saturday evening.

n Closing off certains streets for the event and providing detours.

n Assistance with traffic control and having cars removed from designated "no parking" areas.

"We visited with the car clubs about two weeks ago, and there wasn't a car club that said no," Wetsch said. "We're going to try and do again what we couldn't June 6 and 7."

The commission approved having Russ Sorenson of A2S Engineering design a pump station next to the city's south side reservoir after bids came in $3 million lower than projected.

Sorenson said a pump station next to the south side reservoir can be made now without raising existing water rates.

He credited the slower economy for the reasonable construction costs.

Costs were expected to be a total of $14.6 million for the water treatment plant optimization, south side reservoir, 16-inch water main, 10-inch sanitary sewer force main and 20-inch transmission main. Bids came in at $11.6 million instead.

Sorenson said the new south side reservoir bid alone was $1 million under its projected $4 million cost.

"Citizens can pay for the pump under their current water rates," he said.

Sorenson said they are erecting walls for the reservoir, the 16-inch water main is in the ground, the 10-inch sanitary sewer force main is in the ground and a 20-inch pipeline transmission line is halfway done.

He expects they will all be completed by October.

The south side pump station will be built during the 2010 construction season.

The south side reservoir will replace the Collins Avenue reservoir. The Collins Avenue reservoir will be dismantled in 2010 once it is determined the new system is completely functional.

In a separate matter, the commission also approved job descriptions for its reformatted engineering department.

These include the planning and engineering director and principle engineer.

(Reach reporter LeAnn Eckroth at 250-8264 or leann.eckroth@;bismarcktribune.com.)