Alpine city used emergency procurement for a Main Street crosswalk; the four contracts it lists total $67,538.40
An Alpine city notice says Mayor Carla Merrill approved emergency procurement to move a school crosswalk on Main Street near Mountainville Academy before school started. The notice lists four contracts for concrete, lighting, signage and delineators.
Continuing story: Auditing Alpine
Alpine city has posted a notice of emergency procurement for moving a school crosswalk on Main Street. The notice names Mayor Carla Merrill as the approving official and cites Utah Code 63G-6a-803(2)(b), which allows emergency procurement to mitigate a circumstance likely to affect public health, safety, welfare or property, along with Alpine city code 7.08.010.F. [1]
The notice lists four related contracts: $30,705 to Concrete Solutions and Innovation 2016 for concrete work, including ADA ramps and nearby repairs; $31,163.64 to Intermountain Traffic Safety for a lighting and signage package; $1,071 to Burnt Mountain Services for traffic control and signage; and $4,598.76 to Intermountain Traffic Safety for delineators. Together they total $67,538.40. [1]
The city's stated reasons
According to the notice, the council had repeatedly said in public meetings since fall 2025 that it wanted the crosswalk moved from Main Street at 120 South to a point between Mountainville Academy's entrance and exit. The notice says the existing crosswalk ended in a bank driveway on one side and sat near an offset intersection. [1]
The notice says the city hired Fehr & Peers, whose warrant study found the crosswalk was warranted, and that a project that first looked small turned out to be much larger. It says work had to be coordinated among council meetings, the contractor, vendors and property owners, and that the crosswalk needed to be working before school started. [1]
The notice says the existing school-zone flashing lights were out of specification and were replaced, and that a rectangular rapid flashing beacon was added because the new crossing is mid-block. The lighting products were bought under Utah State Contract MA-4801. [1]
It says old driveway approaches and broken sidewalk and curb nearby were also replaced while crews were on site, work it describes as unrelated to the crosswalk itself but done to save money and improve pedestrian safety. The notice also says the council had already budgeted $1 million for street maintenance projects, including crosswalk striping. [1]
Council review
The fiscal 2027 budget message presented June 23, 2026 states that any project costing more than $15,000 will be brought back to the council for approval before construction. [2]
At the council's Sept. 22 meeting, a Mountainville Academy facilities official said the school had received no prior communication about no-left-turn barricades, and the school's board president described a proposed 100 South exit pilot as costly and risky. Mayor Merrill acknowledged communication issues and said the shared goal is student safety. [3]
No motion was made on that discussion item. The minutes say City Engineer Jason Judd would observe traffic and report at the Oct. 13 meeting. [3]
The $67,538.40 total is the sum of the four contract amounts listed in the notice; the notice itself does not state a total. Contract amounts are not a record of final payments. The notice is the city's own account of why it used emergency procurement; this story reports that account and does not reach a conclusion on whether the exception applied.
Sources
- Alpine City · Notice of Emergency Procurement, Main Street crosswalk
- Alpine City Council · June 23, 2026 meeting packet, including the FY2027 final budget
- Alpine City Council · Sept. 22, 2026 minutes
Reporting by The Utah Ledger from the public records above. AI-assisted, checked against those records.