Elaine Blaisdell Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND — Garrett County commissioners discussed two bids at their public meeting Tuesday — one pertaining to refuse containers and one for replacement of the courthouse chiller. The first bid was approved and the latter was not due to issues with the project having been rebid.
The county’s purchasing department asked to award the chiller bid to Beitzel Corp. of Grantsville for $114,829. Chairman Gregan Crawford made a motion to award the bid to Beitzel but it died due to lack of a second.
“I’ve expressed some concern about that (the rejection of bids) because I need to know exactly what was changed in the re-up of this thing,” said Commissioner James Raley. “Basically we rejected prices that certainly gave competitors an advantage in bidding again.”
Raley made a motion to review both sets of specifications put out in the request for proposals and all the documentation surrounding the bid. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Robert Gatto with Crawford opposing.
“It kind of works both ways, too,” said Crawford. “The last price that was bid the first time was $112,500 (by R.H. Lapp and Sons Inc.) and it was the lowest bidder. When it was rebid, they did the exact same model and they added $6,000 more to it. So to me it looks like they took the competitive advantage to say ‘we were the cheapest bidder the first time out; for whatever reason it’s worth $6,000 more to us the second time around.’”
Raley questioned why the project was rebid.
“My understanding was that it was not about the price. It was about our providing different information in a bid package,” said Raley. “I would caution you and ask you in the future to make absolutely sure that when you put out an RFP that you dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s. I really wanted to see the bid amounts that were put out last time.”
When the initial bid began, it was done with wide-open speculations and it was like comparing apples to oranges, said Brian Bowers, the purchasing agent for the county.
“We thought the fairest thing to do for all bidders was reject the bids. By rebiding, we did save over $1,800,” said Bowers. “We make sure that we get the best deal for the county. We gave the bidders a true chance at winning the bid with good specs versus a wide-open spec range.”
The same three companies participated in the initial bid and the rebid, according to Bowers. The third company was South Mountain Mechanical Contracting.
Crawford noted that on the bid tabulation, everything was identical except for the labor costs.
Corporate funding for the chiller project will come from a Maryland Energy Administration grant. The county would be responsible for $43,538 of the project. Everything needed for the project, including the invoices, has to be completed and turned in by June 1 in order to receive the grant funding.
The commission voted unanimously to approve the bid award for $32,096 for refuse containers to Stoltzfus Steel Manufacturing of Lewisburg, Pa. The bid was for three 40-yard closed recycling containers for $16,236, two 30-yard closed containers with dividers for $10,830 and one 30-yard closed container without dividers for $5,030.
Crawford questioned how the steel containers being used now wore out. The steel containers were rusted and unfortunately people threw things away that would be corrosive to the metal, said Charlie Junkins, buyer for the county’s purchasing department.
The warranty on all the containers is one year from the date of purchase and they will be delivered in 30 to 45 days.
Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com.
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