The Alpena City Council will no longer receive quarterly reports on bids and bid lists.

Several years ago council asked staff to compile the quarterly report, because it wanted a better idea on how many bidders were submitting proposals for projects and why some companies didn’t place bids.

Council was concerned over the lack of bids on certain projects and wanted to know if it might be because the bid specifications were too restrictive or the bidding timeline too short.  It also wanted to make sure some companies weren’t turned off due to the local bidder policy.

City clerk, treasurer and finance director Karen Hebert this week, told council the quarterly reports might have out-lived their usefulness.  She noted that some contractors are annoyed with regular calls asking them why they did not bid on a project.

Council agreed with Hebert and said it would request future reports on an “as needed” basis.

Interim city manger Greg Sundin suggested the city include in the bid specs a letter requesting the contractor’s reason if they choose not to bid.