The Shell Rock River Watershed District has an alternative bidding process planned to select a contractor for Fountain Lake’s first dredging phase.

Watershed District Director of Field Operations Andy Henschel said the district will use best-value bidding, which would not necessarily lead toward the Watershed District accepting the lowest bid.

“You have to be able to rank and score the bids that come in,” Henschel said.

The ranking scale the Watershed District has devised puts a 60 percent weight on the price tag, 15 percent on qualifications, 10 percent on technical approach, 5 percent on sequencing and schedule, 5 percent on the completion date and a final 5 percent on use of district equipment.

“It’s trying to get the best product … best value is the way to go,” District Administrator Brett Behnke said.

Behnke said he expects next year’s dredging budget to be $6.8 million, of which the first phase he estimated would be approximately two-thirds of that. The Watershed District has based these estimates on evaluating similar projects, including those at Clear Lake and Lake Crystal.

Henschel said this process will allow the Watershed District to potentially select someone who has similarly scaled projects behind them.

“It really helps weed out maybe individuals who (haven’t) necessarily done projects of this size,” Henschel said.

Henschel, the dredge the Watershed District owns may or may not be used depending on the winning bid.

“Our hope has always been that they’ll use it,” he said. However, Henschel wants the project to be cost-efficient, which he said could boil down not to the equipment used, but the experience and qualifications of those submitting bids.

“This bid process has a lot of moving parts as far as the project itself, so you want somebody that you know has … dealt in the business of dredging,” he said.

Henschel said the district has formed a committee to review bids and to recommend a best value bidder to the watershed board.

He estimated the process would take approximately 65 days, and the board should be able to pick a contractor by mid- to late February. Henschel said the time necessary for the second and third contract bidding will be roughly the same.

Behnke said the way this dredge proceeds can operate as a measuring stick for long-term planning.

“As this project proceeds, it’s setting the benchmarks for the future lakes,” Behnke said.