With temperatures dipping below 40 degrees at night, the Bowling Green City Commission took up the topic of ice at its meeting Tuesday evening.

The city commission voted to buy $64,275 worth of de-icer from Cargill Deicing Technology.

The purchase of 750 tons of de-icer comes after a particularly harsh winter in which the city found itself short of supplies to keep streets open.

“We learned from experience and it’s our intent to hopefully have sufficient de-icer available,” said Bowling Green City Manager Kevin DeFebbo.

The purchase allows the city to seek more de-icer from other sources if Cargill is unable to meet any future demand, according to Public Works Operating Manager Bobby Phelps.

Downtown redevelopment

John Michael Kelly was appointed by the city commission Tuesday evening to the Warren County Downtown Economic Development Authority.

The development authority is in charge of Bowling Green’s downtown redevelopment district, and has two city representatives on the five-person board.

Kelly’s appointment comes after Chuck Coates resigned in August to pursue other interests.

Kelly moved to Bowling Green in 1972 to work at DESA International as the vice president of sales and marketing. He retired from DESA in 2000 and has since joined Pan Oston Co. as co-chief executive officer.

Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker recommended Kelly after the city commission voted down her previous recommendation, Emily Perkins, at a September meeting. Walker said she hopes his intimate knowledge of how businesses operate would be a huge asset to the city.

City Commissioner Joe Denning applauded Walker’s pick.

“I think this is an outstanding appointment. A gentleman I know that will look at the total picture,” Denning said.

Ball field lighting

The city commission approved installing new lights at Hobson Grove baseball fields at a cost of $158,500.

“For the last couple of years we haven’t had funds to put lighting at these two locations. We decided this year it was too critical for safety and use,” DeFebbo said.

The unanimous vote came despite a protest from the second-lowest bidder, Arrow Electric.

Lights lose their brightness over time, so the bid requirements included a specification that when the lights are working at 80 percent, they would produce a certain amount of light.

Because the winning bidder, Illinois-based Barton Electric, proposed using a new technology in which light output does not degrade over time, the second lowest bidder protested, saying that didn’t follow the city’s bid requirement.

However, City Parks and Recreation Director Ernie Gouvas said the winning bidder had the best system.

“We expect this system to operate at least 20 percent less (cost) than the competitor,” Gouvas said.

DeFebbo said City Attorney Gene Harmon had been consulted and found no legal problem accepting the low bid.

Landfill

The city’s Glen Lily landfill will be getting an upgrade. The city commission approved paying $446,790 to Bowling Green company Holland Inc. to extend the liner on the inactive landfill.

This should cover porous tubes that deliver leachate – the liquid produced by a landfill – into concrete storage units. The tubes have been filling with stormwater, forcing the city to empty the units more frequently than should be necessary.

The liner should contain the leachate sufficiently that tanks will need to be emptied only every few years, according to city officials. Most of the $446,790 could be recouped through Kentucky’s historic landfill fund.

“Just like to commend staff on moving forward with this and also finding the repayment,” Walker said.