The Taylor City Council voted to once-again award the four-year municipal mowing contract to Heart of Texas Landscaping, the lowest bidder at $542,201.
The bid included mowing of the 140-acre Taylor City Cemetery, but staff recommended having city workers continue the cemetery landscaping instead. After removing the cemetery from the contract, the total properties remaining put the amended bid at $352,094.52.
“Our public works grounds crew will continue to mow the cemetery assisted by other public works employees, depending on how fast the grass grows,” said Jim Gray, director of public works. “It will cost us a bit more, but since the city employees are already on staff the money is already budgeted so it’s not new money from the general fund.”
The city received 19 responses to the request but only three completed bids. The two unsuccessful companies were Abescape with a bid of $936,562 and Dedicated Industrial at $709,964 including the cemetery.
Some potential vendors said they never saw the bid announcement, which was advertised in the local paper and on the city’s website for two weeks, prompting Councilman Robert Garcia to quip, “I’m going to make another pitch for everybody to subscribe to the Taylor Press and read the fine print.”
The new contract represents an increase of 16.6% over the current contract, which ends Sept. 30. The current contract totals $301,959 split between Yellowstone Landscape, paid $47,182 to mow the right-of-ways on Second, Fourth and Main streets, and Heart of Texas, paid $254,777 for everything else except the cemetery.
Heart of Texas has been working with the Taylor parks and city properties since 2018. The company has been in business since 1989 and currently performs landscaping and/or irrigation services for Williamson County, Georgetown, Temple College – Hutto and several properties in Round Rock.
