Knott County awards Chestnut Ridge water and sewer contract after engineer recommends lowest bid

Knott County Fiscal Court voted April 15 to award the Chestnut Ridge development water and sanitary‑sewer Phase 1 construction contract to Buchanan Contracting, following an engineer's recommendation presented to the court.

Judge Jeff Dobson read a letter from county engineer Ron Johnson summarizing the bid opening and tabulations. The letter, read into the record, stated: “Buchanan Contracting Corporation of Winchester, Kentucky submitted the lowest bid overall of the total of $1,816,286.40 for this project,” and recommended Buchanan as “the lowest bid, responsive, responsible bidder.” The judge told the court he would take a motion to award the project to Buchanan Contracting; Brent Smith moved, Carl Craft seconded, and the court voted in favor.

Why it matters: the Chestnut Ridge project is part of multiple post‑flood infrastructure efforts and will use state EK‑SAFE and other monitored funds, meaning the county's procurement and documentation will be subject to state and federal oversight.

The record contains a numeric inconsistency: shortly before the vote the judge stated an award amount as “2,147,000, $286.40” when calling for the motion to award. The engineer's written recommendation in the record lists Buchanan's total as $1,816,286.40. The court approved the award by voice vote; the transcript does not record individual roll‑call votes or clarify the discrepancy in spoken amounts. The county should confirm the contract amount in the bid tabulation and award documents before contract execution.

Court members discussed local preference and the size of the gap between the lowest and next bids. Carl Bridal Craft and others noted a six‑figure difference between bidders; one participant referenced a roughly $333,939 spread between the low bidder and the next lowest bid as observed in the tabulation. Judges and commissioners said the engineer's recommendation and the large dollar gap supported favoring the low responsive bidder.

Next steps: the county said it would send the engineer's letter and award documentation to Ron Johnson and proceed with contract award paperwork. Any final contract must reflect the figure in the official bid tabulation and meet the monitoring requirements attached to EK‑SAFE and state grant funds.