For the second time in a year, when bids were opened for Baldwin City’s $1.2 million Downtown Streetscape Project, there was only one bid to open.

But it was too high – about twice engineers’ estimate – so City Council members rejected it.

Now the council is back to square one, looking at all possibilities to save the project. And the idea of canceling the Maple Leaf Festival has even been mentioned. But it’s highly doubtful anyone would agree to call off the highly popular event, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary this October.

The sidewalk and lighting project, according to engineers, should cost about $1.2 million. But the last bid, submitted by Meadows Construction of Tonganoxie, was set at $2.4 million.

Even more than money, Baldwin City’s problem is time, said Utility Director Bill Winegar.

“Having it done by Maple Leaf,” Winegar said. “They can’t do it in that amount of time. The engineer says it can be done.”

At their meeting this week, council members wanted to know what the next step would be.

City Administrator Jeff Dingman said the city has set a new bid date. And he said contractors could work until Oct. 1, quit work for several weeks and resume after Maple Leaf, which is set for Oct. 20-21.

“That’s going to drive the cost up,” Mayor Gary Walbridge said. “Maybe we need to consider the possibility of not having Maple Leaf.”

That brought gasps from all attending the meeting.

“We can’t even seriously talk about not having Maple Leaf,” said Councilman Tony Brown.

“Factor in bad weather,” Walbridge said. “We’re talking about business people who can’t open their businesses. Who are they going to sue? The city? The contractor?”

Winegar said everything could be worked around.

“There are some businesses that will be disrupted,” he said. “These things can be overcome. The numbers were extremely high. There will be lots of subcontractors. I think that Maple Leaf can be worked around.”

Dingman said there would also be adjustments made when the bids go out next time, mostly to address the timing issue.

“When we re-bid on March 28, we’ll give contractors a little more say on when they start the work and then extend the work days from 180 to 240, with the provision that they’ll have to work around the Maple Leaf Festival in October,” he said. “That should give us a significant reduction in cost of the bids.”