OVTC to advertise for surveyor quotes again

Oneida County and the Oneida Vilas Transit Commission (OVTC) are seeking a survey of a 4‑acre parcel in the town of Pelican as part of efforts to establish a new home for Northwoods Transit Connections.

The parcel is part of 37.5 acres of land the county has and has offered to the OVTC for a new administration, shop and bus storage facility.

With a bulk of grant funding in place or being applied for to pay for the project, the land needs to be surveyed, something OVTC director Barb Newman told commission members at their Jan. 29 meeting has come to something of a delay. 

“I sent out a request for proposal (RFP) to Oneida and Vilas county surveyors,” she said, adding the response deadline to the 13 RFP’s she sent was Jan. 22. “We did not receive any responses. I’m kind of wondering if I did it at the wrong time of the year.”

Newman said she contacted one of the surveyors she’d sent an RFP to and asked what happened. 

She said she was asked if the RFP was sent to the surveying firm’s post office box as there wasn’t a physical address. 

“I should have known better because not everyone has rural delivery,” Newman said.

She said she contacted the program manager at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) who advised her to verify “the addresses you’re using are the correct ones.”

“So, I’ll have to make phone calls to everybody,” Newman said. “I can send it out again ... and put later dates on it.”

She said the new deadline for survey quotes would be in March “with product delivery at the end of May where we’re not having people going through two feet of snow and trying to do a survey then.”

“We’ll just send it out one more time,” Newman said. 

Commission member Holly Tomlanovich, chair of the Vilas County board’s land and water committee and its forestry, recreation and land committee said the response those committees and departments have received when it comes to seeking quotes for surveying or engineering “is small.”

“There’s work out there,” she said. “We’ll see what happens. Maybe we’ll get lucky on this project and we’ll hear enough to ... rather than getting one surveyor or whatever, maybe we’ll hear from more.”

Newman asked if she should contact surveyors outside Oneida and Vilas counties and Tomlanovich suggested contacting the 13 firms for a start. 

Commission member Richard Logan made a motion which was eventually approved to have Newman proceed with re-sending the RFPs to the 13 surveying firms, it was seconded and during the discussion, there were suggestions from commission members regarding getting more surveying firms contacted.

“Did you post it in the (newspaper) or anything?” commission member Billy Fried asked.

“I don’t know that’s how it works,” Newman said. “I can ask if we can put it in the paper.”

“You might as well,” Fried said, acknowledging the thinking regarding holding off on the actual project until the snow is gone but also wanting to make sure a surveyor is on board when needed. 

Commission chairman Marv Anderson suggested the possibility of looking beyond Oneida and Vilas counties. 

“There may be people who would say ‘I’ll put this on my schedule for April and I’ll drive up 75 miles and I’ll do it,’” he said. “Just a thought. It’s up to you and whoever you work with to decide how many more ... as long as they’re qualified surveyors who can do the job.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].