 - The Lander City Council has selected independent contractor Austin Shields as the new groundskeeper at the Lander Community and Convention Center.){kind=link}
(Lander, WY) – The Lander City Council has selected independent contractor Austin Shields as the new groundskeeper at the Lander Community and Convention Center.
Shields, who has served as facility manager at the community center in the past, submitted the low bid for the job, offering to maintain the grounds for $925 per month, according to the bid tabulation sheet that was included in the council meeting packet last week. 
That’s still $9,900 more per year than it would have cost if the council had decided to keep the $100 groundskeeping line item in the facility management contract for the convention center this year, Councilmember Dan Hahn pointed out.
“(We) just added $9,900 per year to the citizens of Lander,” he said. “I think we should have discussed this a little more before we jumped to that conclusion.”
But Councilmember Melinda Cox said it would be “absurd” to expect the community center grounds to be adequately maintained for $100 per month, especially considering the need for “snow removal and weeding and all those types of things.”
“That is a lot of work, and we should be taking care of our facilities, (so) I think it’s money well spent,” she said. “We’ve got a good person here who put in a good contract, and we’re going to have a really good response to it, and it’s going to be a really good improvement for our community center.”
In response to Cox’s comments, Hahn noted that the groundskeeping responsibilities have been included in the facility maintenance contract “from the beginning,” and “if that $100 wasn’t enough, it wasn’t brought up.”
“Then all of a sudden – and to tell you the truth I hate to even say this – but to me, that’s the excuse, because we would not be in this position – we’ve never been in this position – but we have a family member in this,” he said. “I’m not a betting man, but I’d bet that this wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t in this position.”
The mayor’s daughter currently holds the facility maintenance contract for the community center.
Cox disagreed that the decision to award a separate bid for groundskeeping at the community center “has to do with a family member,” however.
Instead, she said, “it has to do with the lack of response for that contract.”
“We had one (bidder) for several years,” she said. “And then we got two, and the bids were so egregiously separate … and you have to take the low bid.”
Draft agreement
The draft groundskeeping agreement that was included in last week’s council packet says the contractor must keep the 2.75 acre community center grounds “free of obvious garbage” and “report any needed maintenance and minor repair, outside of their scope of work for the facility, to the city.”
“All grass areas including the main lawn next to the building and the areas between the street and parking lots will be mowed on a weekly basis, during the months of May through September,” the draft states. “Quarterly all shrubs and trees will be pruned and trimmed to maintain the natural growth habit, to eliminate diseased or damaged growth, and to maintain visual appeal. Suckers and small branches will be removed from trees quarterly or as needed. … All plants will be observed for disease and/or pests, and treated accordingly. All landscaped areas will be kept free of weeds and either removed manually or treated with an appropriate herbicide, monthly.”
The draft says the contractor must “remove all the leaves in the fall from all grass areas” and “routinely inspect all plants and lawn for proper watering.”
Also in the fall, the draft says “plants will be trimmed back to the ground at the end of the growing season,” and in the winter, “all sidewalk areas surrounding the facility will be cleared of snow once 2 inches accumulates or if the facility is rented.”
“If the facility is not rented during a storm, snow can be removed after the storm has passed,” the draft states. “The Contractor shall not allow ice to build up on the sidewalks. If ice begins to form the Contractor shall spread ice melt on the walkways.”
For more information, call the City of Lander at (307) 332-2870.