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ALPENA — The Northeast Michigan Materials Management Authority (NMMMA) is preparing to resubmit its Request for Proposals (RFP) for its new materials recovery facility (MRF), scaling back plans to fit the project within its budget. The authority faces a tight deadline to meet benchmarks to receive a grant extension with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).

NMMMA has walked away from its previous partnership with Devere Industrial, LLC, which the authority awarded a bid for $3.9 million for the project.

The authority awarded the project bid to Devere in December. This bid added an additional $500,000 to $700,000 to the original cost estimate NMMMA had projected earlier in the project’s lifespan.

NMMMA Executive Director Bailey Barr told The News in February that the authority and Devere were working to lower the final project cost to $3.2 million. However, the budget cuts were not enough to get the authority back on budget.

John Kozlowski, NMMMA board member and Alpena County board chairman, told The News on Friday that the authority backed out of its deal with Devere about two months ago. He said that even with budget cuts to the project, the authority was unable to afford the design Devere had drafted.

“We had to shift gears with the changes we were looking at,” he said.

Kozlowski said that the authority may have had better luck with the bid process if it had considered and included costs concerning electrical and mechanical components and plumbing.

Kozlowski and Barr said that it might have been more effective if the authority had done a more indepth design and cost analysis when it first issued the RFPs.

“We probably made a mistake moving forward with a generic building,” Kozlowski said.

Barr added that “a more solid proposal packet” might attract more bidders to the project than before.

According to Barr, the authority has employed an architect to design the building and to conduct a cost analysis to determine exactly how much the project will cost with all the major components. He said that the authority is expecting to have those numbers by late June, early July.

At that point, Barr said that if the design comes back within budget, NMMMA will move forward with issuing the RFPs. If the design comes back outside of the authority’s budget, Barr said the board will reevaluate.

He added that the goal is to reissue the bids in late July and hopefully award the bid to a company in the fall. The EGLE grant that is helping pay for the project expires on Sept. 30, and the authority must show that it has a contractual agreement with a contracting company for the construction of the project to receive an extension.

He said that the challenges the authority is facing currently is likely because the original RFP was too simple.

“Last time, we didn’t think it would go over what we had budgeted for,” Barr said. “This time, we want to make sure all of our Ts are crossed … I don’t think we did enough looking into project costs.”

In February, Barr explained that in 2030, the state will require every county to provide recycling services to residents. Counties in Northeast Michigan will take their recycling materials to the NMMMA MRF. If the MRF is not built in Northeast Michigan, Barr said that counties would likely have to ship their recycling to Emmett County.

He added this could cost the county a potential significant sum in shipping materials that far.

Barr told The News on Friday that NMMMA’s goal is to “mimic” the size and scope of the MRF located in Emmett County as NMMMA’s MRF will be considered the recycling hub of Northeast Michigan.

However, the challenge is keeping the building project within budget.

“It’s not going to be a very big building,” he said, though is confident it will handle the volume of materials coming from the region.

Barr added that there are grant opportunities available for expansion down the road.

He explained that the authority has received a $2.7 million United States Department of Agriculture grant; $1.2 million grant from the EGLE; and funding from local organizations. The authority also has the ability to use $1.6 million in county bonds to pay for however much the cost exceeds the amount of grant funding the authority has received thus far.

In total, the authority has $5.6 million to spend, though Barr added NMMMA wants to minimize the amount of bonds they have to sell since those will have to be paid back.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.