The Mount Vernon City Council approved accepting the low bid for the cold storage buildings at Bryant Site at the Monday, Nov. 21 council meeting.
That approval came after the bids were originally tabled at the Nov. 7 meeting.
This was the second time bidding this project, and Peak Construction was again the low bidder. with a bid of $504,600 This time, the project was below the engineer’s estimated cost for both buildings. There were four bids on the project, and the three lowest bids were all within $45,000 of one another.
In discussion at Nov. 7 meeting, the query was on if the coouncil could take a different low bid for the project.
Brad Robinson of Robinson Construction, a local construction company that also bid on the project, asked that question.
Robinson explained he had a bid for the first project but because of a flat tire on the day bids were due, he was unable to get his bid into city hall ahead of that deadline. His bid was not accepted in the first round.
Council member Paul Tuerler asked about the council’s buy local ordinance and if that would take precedent here as well.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said the shop local ordinance would not, as three of the four bidders are within half an hour of Mount Vernon, and thus, local.
Because this was a bid process, Nosbisch noted there is case law requiring cities taking the lowest responsible bid for a project. Peak’s bid was ruled to be reasonable by V and K Engineering because they met the specifications of what was bid.
“This pains me, because I have spoken to Brad a lot on this project over the years,” Nosbisch said. “Peak Construction has not worked for the city in the past, and I have no reason to disqualify them from work. Staff’s hands are really strapped by state law on accepting low bids.”
Robinson pointed at the $141,000 swing in their bids from the first to second bid as potentially not being a lowest responsible bid, but Nosbisch said that wasn’t disqualifying.
Council member Craig Engel recommended seeing if there is a way that they could take the Robison bid that was $16,000 higher than the low bid. Nosbisch said that could open the city to a lawsuit, and cost the city more than the additional $16,000 in additional cost.
Nosbisch took the query to the city attorneys on clarifying the bid process, and the council awarded the lowest bid to Peak Construction at the Nov. 21 meeting.