Huckleberries Hears (Ed Corridor) …

… That bids were opened for the first phase of the Education Corridor (infrastructure for streets, sidewalks, bike lanes, lighting, trees, etc.) today … and the low bid came in at $3.7-$3.8 million — or about $1.2 million lower than the original JUB Engineers projection. In fact, all 4 bids opened today were within $160,000 of one another. Lake City Development Corp. will provide most of the funding with some to come from North Idaho College. The work for Phase 1 covers most of the infrastructure except signalization at Northwest Boulevard and River and maybe signals at one other point. Work should begin soon. The winning bid will be awarded at noon Tuesday at Old City Hall. (Now My 2 Cents: This is exactly what I was talking about in the comments section re: the time is right for capital projects, even in this Not-So-Great Recession, because projects can be done so much more cheaply.)