By: Alyssa Ochss | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published April 21, 2025
ST. CLAIR SHORES — In a 4-1 vote on April 7, the St. Clair Shores City Council approved a bid award for the 12 Mile Road water main project to F.D.M. Contracting, Inc. of Shelby Township.
Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Dave Rubello cast the opposing vote. Councilwoman Candice Rusie and Councilwoman Linda Bertges were excused for this meeting.
Community Development and Inspections Director Denise Pike said they plan to upgrade a water main from 1927 on 12 Mile Road between Little Mack Avenue and Harper Avenue.
“The purpose of the 12 Mile Road Water Main project is to upgrade the existing 1927 cast iron water main and corresponding appurtenances with new HDPE (high-density polyethylene) and ductile iron water main and new appurtenances,” items attached to the meeting’s agenda stated. “This project will improve reliability, flow, and service along a primary corridor in the city between Little Mack and Harper Ave.”
Based on estimations from Fishbeck engineers, Pike said the budget for the project was $1.8 million. Staff wanted to award the second-lowest bidder at $1,390,413 with a 10% contingency, making the project total $1,529,454. According to documents attached to the meeting’s agenda, this is $152,000 more than the lowest bidder.
“We are recommending going with the second-lowest bidder because of my personal past experiences on the Florence and Ridgeway project,” Pike said. “And we’ve also checked references for F.D.M. among many of the surrounding communities and they all have very positive experiences.”
The project on Florence Street and Ridgeway Street was a water main project.
Dino Cervi, owner of Bricco Excavating Company, LLC, said during public comment at the beginning of the meeting that he wanted to defend his company against accusations by the city regarding the project on Florence and Ridgeway. He said he asked the city for a conversation and the city refused.
“We were unaware of any concerns,” Cervi said. “I’ve also reached out to the engineer who ran the Florence and Ridgeway project, and they were also unaware of any of the accusations being made about Bricco Excavating.”
He said the council and residents have the right to spend the extra money for the project.
“But it should not be at the expense of my company’s reputation,” Cervi said. “We have been in business for 29 years and we have never had a project pulled from us when we were read the low bidder.”
Responding to what Cervi said, Councilman John Caron said he’s been asking about some type of evaluation process for projects for a long while now. He asked if there is any documentation for the Florence and Ridgeway project. Pike said there were no evaluations and there were also very few daily reports from project inspectors.
“What we have is personal experience, and my personal experience — and it is burned into my brain because it was one of the first projects I worked on in my tenure with the city of St. Clair Shores — was we struggled heavily with residents and addressing resident complaints,” Pike said.
She went on to say the project was not kept clean and that there was a lack of notice of road closures.
“I don’t intend to disparage the contractor. We would like to work with them again, but we feel that this project, given that it is one of our most traveled corridors, it’s imperative that those issues are not repeated,” Pike said.
Councilman Chris Vitale said having some sort of evaluation process would be very helpful.
“Because then that would become part of our packet and we could read through that,” Vitale said.
He also said there were a lot of details in the summary sheet with constant resident complaints, cleanliness and other things mentioned. The one that stands out, Vitale said, was the issue mentioning a refusal from the foreman to address resident concerns.
He said due to the number of projects, it’s hard to remember what project it is and where the complaints came from. He asked if Pike remembered specific instances of conversations with the foreman and if Pike agreed that the company didn’t know about the complaints.
“I am not certain what the gentleman here knows or doesn’t know, and I don’t know if that went up the chain,” Pike said. “But I can remember very specific instances where the foreman would stay in his truck, and we were dealing with resident concerns.”
Pike said they do have a template of questions that the city engineer put together so they can start evaluations.
“Because we agree that as these projects start to run together, so do some of the concerns so it would be good for all of us to have this in writing,” Pike said.
Vitale said that though the bid is more expensive, they also say they expect good service to the residents.
“I’m 100% willing to pay a little bit more on this contract to get that kind of good service and even to send the message that we expect that good service,” Vitale said.
Rubello said that to him, $152,000 is a lot of money. He mentioned that there will probably be problems as well.
“I’m going to be a no vote on awarding this to F.D.M. because I think some of the things that you’re talking about right now, and I understand about customer service, I get all that, but I think some of this right now can be solved with a simple sit down with Dino,” Rubello said.
St. Clair Shores City Manager Dustin Lent said there were seven bidders on this project and prices were competitive.