ORANGE COVE – Across two meetings over the last month, the Orange Cove City Council took action on multiple administrative items intended to improve staff efficiency and expand the services the city provides to community members.
At its most recent meeting on Oct. 22, the Orange Cove City Council unanimously approved an agreement with Dinuba Carpet Pros for twice-weekly basic janitorial services at four public facilities in Orange Cove: the senior center, city hall, police department and community center.
Public Works Director Joe Estrada said public works employees currently conduct the janitorial services for these facilities but have trouble fitting that into their daily maintenance schedules. A shortage of staff, scheduling challenges and the need to meet deadlines on other projects and duties keep public works staff from providing consistent and quality janitorial services at these facilities, Estrada said.
“These issues negatively impact the overall cleanliness and maintenance of public facilities,” Estrada said. “Outsourcing janitorial services will ensure consistent and professional care while improving the public facilities.”
Orange Cove received three proposals for janitorial services and awarded the contract to Dinuba Carpet Pros as the lowest responsive bidder. Dinuba Carpet Pros will charge $1,800 a month, or $14,400 annually, for their services compared to the $2,560 a month proposed by Desert Commercial Cleaning Services from Selma and the $3,400 a month rate proposed by Tri County Janitorial Services out of Kingsburg.
Also at the October meeting, the council unanimously approved the close-out of a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) the city received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in September 2022.
According to a city staff report, HUD awarded Orange Cove $250,000 to produce a reliable and high-quality potable water supply for residents. The city originally intended to do this by building a remote water well and tank site in the area of Manning and Dinuba avenues that would have enough capacity to work as a backup water source for the city when the Friant-Kern Canal is under maintenance.
Although the city could not successfully build this water well due to the objections of other area agencies, the city partially met the deliverables specified in the grant, as the outlined tasks were attempted and partially completed. Further, the city is still pursuing backup water sources.
Orange Cove has used all of the grant funds provided to it and satisfied the grant requirements by the deadline of Oct. 27, the staff report said.
Other actions approved via the consent calendar included two donations to high school programs, updated job descriptions for a senior center coordinator and administrative analyst position and an agreement accepting other CDBG funding.
The city of Orange Cove donated $500 to the Orange Cove High School Titan Marching Band for the annual Orange Cove Band Review and $1,000 to the Orange Cove wrestling team. The funds were already set aside in the city’s budget for community donations, a staff report said.
The CDBG funding accepted by the city also comes from the HUD and will go toward the Sheridan Park Improvement project. According to a staff report, Orange Cove received more than $300,000 for the construction of a 32-stall parking lot along Second Street, where there is currently limited parking to access Sheridan Park.
September decisions
Prior to its October meeting, the council had not met since September. At the Sept. 24 regular meeting, the council closed out a different CDBG program and approved multiple public works contracts.
The CDBG program closed out in September was initially awarded to the city in August 2023 and provided $500,000 in subsistence payments to eligible residents who were struggling to make their mortgage, rent or utility payments. Total assistance was limited to $5,000 per applicant and only included residents with an income below 80% of the area median income.
According to a city staff report, Orange Cove received 302 applications and assisted 256 households through a total of $467,290 in payments. The remaining $32,710 of the grant funding was used for the administrative costs of carrying out the program.
Contracts awarded in September included more than $1.1 million to Todd Companies for work related to the city’s efforts to locate additional water sources. Todd Companies was the lowest responsive bidder out of 11 total bids on the project, which calls for water tank site clearing, construction of an emergency tank release containment/stormwater collection basin, water main extensions and additional infrastructure.
Also related to the city’s water project was a contract awarded to Superior Ag Construction for approximately $92,000 to construct a water main loop in the area of Monson Avenue and Martinez Street. Both this contract and the $1.1 million contract are funded with grant money from the California Department of Water Resources.
Finally, the Orange Cove council also awarded a $40,000 contract to IG Services for a sewer and water rate study. The city received four bid proposals for the water rate study, which is required for Orange Cove to be able to analyze how much it costs to provide water to residents and set utility rates accordingly. The study is expected to be completed by January 2026.
The next regularly scheduled Orange Cove City Council meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Nov. 12.
