A request to refund $5,000 paid as a bid security by New Peak Construction was tabled by the Green River City Council Tuesday night as city staff determine how much the company cost the city in both staff time and public notice publications regarding two tracts of land formerly occupied by Lincoln High School.
The company originally bid $100,000 to purchase and develop the land for residential housing in 2017. However, in the following years, New Peak Construction was unable to develop the areas known as tracts B and C and have requested a refund of the $5,000. New Peak Construction is operated by Joe and Jared Killpack, who are the sons of Councilman Gary Killpack, who did not attend the meeting Tuesday night.
Questions circulated about if the city could keep the $5,000 as New Peak Construction had asked for and received extensions on its timetable to develop the two tracts, which cost the city both staff time in preparing the extensions and money through public notices published to announce the extensions. Mark Westenskow, director of public works for the city, said his department didn’t have a direction as to how it should handle the request, which resulted in him bringing to the Council.
Councilwoman Sherry Bushman pushed for a penalty clause in future purchase agreements -- if a developer could not develop land within the timetable proposed, the company would forfeit the bid security. Wyoming statutes dictate that a 5% security be paid to a municipality when it sells land for development. However, George Jost disagreed with the sentiment, saying the city’s precedent from has been to refund the security, saying it may hurt the city if they’re sued for the $5,000. City attorney Galen West said he is unable to determine how a court would handle the issue, saying it would likely be heard at the district-court level, adding the statutes are not clear on how the request should be handled.
When voting to table the request, Jost was the only vote opposing the motion to table.
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