The winning bid for Hartley's new lift station came as a pleasant surprise to council members on Monday night.

GM Contracting, Inc., of Lake Crystal, Minn., submitted a bid of $502,006.46 for replacement and construction of the lift station. The project was originally estimated at $908,570 without engineering, administrative and legal fees.

Other bids received were from Vander Pol Excavating at $739,308 and Hulstein Excavating at $773,983.

"We had some smokin' hot bids," said engineer Josh Pope, of Bolton & Menk. "[GM Contracting] is a very reputable contractor and is very capable of performing the work."

Council members questioned if the company had missed something in its bid. Pope said that was a concern of his too, but the bid was reviewed and nothing was absent. He said GM Contracting has been very aggressive with its bids recently, so it wasn't a complete surprise.

"I'm not complaining, because that's a good bid," said Mayor Rodney Ahrenstorff.

The low bid comes with some unexpected consequences. Since the city received a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to help pay for the project, around 50 percent of that amount would have to be returned because it wouldn't be needed.

Pope said CDBG administrators don't like to see money come back to them. He suggested that the council add to the scope of the project so those dollars could be utilized for additional infrastructure improvements.

The city is limited by the location of the project. The CDBG grant application required a household income study in the area affected by the infrastructure upgrades. Hartley qualified for the grant because the neighborhood serviced by the lift station met the low-to-moderate income threshold required for funding.

Pope suggested the city seek bids for cure-in-place-pipe (CIPP) lining to raise the price of the project and use all of the grant money. CIPP lining is a method of trenchless rehabilitation and restoration used in the repair of existing sewer lines. The process uses a textile liner tube and a liquid resin to reseal cracks and other damage, in turn reducing the amount of inflow and infiltration into pipes and lessening the burden on the sewer system.

The council agreed to move forward with CIPP lining. Pope was optimistic the addition wouldn't affect the timeline of the project, which is hoped to be completed next year.

The new lift station will replace the old one located at North Eighth Avenue East and Second Street Northeast that serves a large potion of the northeast quadrant of town. It was built in 1967 and is outdated and undersized.