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The sealed quotes were taken under advisement at the board's last regular meeting on Feb. 25.
Riley Terrell Lawn Service of Bloomfield was awarded the base quote to demolish the properties located at 573 W. South Street, 532 W. Davis Street, 556 West Davis Street and 564 West Davis Street, for a price of $16,849.
Terrell was also successful on the alternate property located at 533 W. South Street for a cost of $3,899.
However, the bid awarding was not without some controversy and resulted in a 6-1 vote on both proposals.
Board president Marvin Helms cast the dissenting vote and said he didn't like the way the post bid opening negotiations between superintendent Dan Sichting and Terrell was handled.
"On a sealed bid, we ought to stick to the low bidder if all of the paperwork was in order," Helms said. "The other guy in question, I consider to be local too."
The original low quotes on the base and alternate proposal was submitted by Kramer Custom Weed Spraying and Land Clearing, Linton, for $16,850 for the base and $3,900 for the alternate.
At the Feb. 25 meeting, the board authorized the superintendent to review the bids and conduct negotiations as he deemed necessary.
Terrell's 'negotiated' quote was $1 lower than Kramer's and lower than his original quote of $17,528 for the four properties. Terrell's negotiated quote was also $1 less than Kramer's original quote and under his own original quote of $4,780.
Last meeting, Sichting advised the board that because this is a service there are no statutory requirements to select the low bidder.
"There is not statutory requirements for accepting the demolition quotes so basically you can accept the quotes, you can accept the low bidder, you can reject all of the quotes, you can reject the quotes and if you so like you can negotiate with one bidder. Anything is possible because there are no statutory requirements," he said.
The superintendent pointed out that any project under $50,000 does not have to be bid, under state regulations.
Helms didn't feel the matter was handled correctly because the original low bidder was not contacted by the superintendent to 'negotiate" for a lower quote.
"I think he (Kramer) should have been told what was going on," Helms stated.
The other quotes included: Joshua Campbell, Bloomfield, $26,100 with $5,275 for the alternate; Blackhouse LLC, Martinsville, $34,430 with no bid on the alternate; Deckard and Musgrave, Bloomington, $31,000 and $8,600 for the alternate; Walter Lowder, Bloomfield, $39,594 with no bid on the alternate; and Carr-Thomas Construction, Linton, $18,000 and $4,700 for the alternate.
Board member Steve Dowden commented that he felt like the board failed to give the superintendent clear direction on how they wanted to proceed and called for the board to establish some administrative guidelines before undertaking this kind of project again.
"It needs to be more clear-cut, I think," he added. "Some of us believe we should be giving preference to local vendors. I personally feel like we should, but we need to have some definitions of what local actually is."
He also noted, "I think if we are going to go with a closed bid system in the future, we need to either go with the lowest bidder or if we decide we want to give some sort of a preference to local vendors, then we need to set a dollar figure or some sort of percentage or something that we use that will give an advantage to a local bidder...I feel like it was the board's fault for not being more clear on that...we didn't give Dan (Sichting) any clear direction on how to proceed."
Saying that, Dowden added, "It's not the proper time to undue what has been done."
Sichting said the board doesn't have any firm plans for the properties once they are cleared.
"Obviously, our (school) campus is built on a postage stamp and we felt like purchasing additional land close to us would give us plenty of flexibility in the future whether it be to build additional facilities. Parking is always an issue in the Bloomfield School District. That could always be used for parking. It could be used for athletics and a lot of different issues and we really felt like the opportunity was there and now was the time to move forward," the superintendent explained.
The board's next regular meeting will be at 7 p.m.,Tuesday, March 30 in the junior high conference room.
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My,My, is this a case of "on the other side of river" again?! I believe so.
Wonder why things NEVER change in Bloomfield. It's been the same since I was in school 40 years ago.
Mr. Sichting may not have been given any clear direction on how to proceed, but any one with good moral values and a fair business sense might have seen a better way to proceed.
Congrads to Terrell Lawn care. He is a hardworking individual who will do an excellent job for the school and Mr Sichting obviously knew that!
Believe the legitimate low bidder should have also been given an opportunity to negotiate.
Linton is across the river, but it is a local river....
Marvin Helms is correct.
For the love of Pete, have none of you ever taken an action, then in hindsight realized that you could have handled it better?
Mr. Dowden is correct in that the Board now has an opportunity to put very clear guidelines in place as to how such a manner of bidding is to be handled in the future. I don't blame Mr. Sichting for not being able to mind read how 7 different board members defined "local".
Should all of that been in place before they started taking bids? Yes, but it wasn't, so mark it down as a learning experience, and move on.
As a tax payer with a child in the Bloomfield School District, to me, in this instance, local means Bloomfield. If the Bloomfield bidders were all too high, even with whatever type of percentage/negotiation given to them, then Linton is certainly local as opposed to Bloomington or Sullivan. And those places are local in comparison to Indy and Evansville. In other words, local is all a matter of perspective.
While I don't use his services, several of my neighbors do, and Mr. Terrell has a reputation for being a hard working, enterprising young man who has built a nice business for himself. So I feel confident that the work will be performed in a manner that is satisfactory both to the Board and to the taxpayers.
And for those of you who are in disagreement with Mr. Helms, let's be thankful that our Board has thoughtful individuals who serve and are not afraid to question and have "controversy" in order to reach a solution that best serves our school district.
"Controversy" is what would have happened if, under this same lack of directive, Mr. Sichting would have awarded the work to anyone other than a Bloomfield resident. GCDW would have gotten lots of page views over that. ;)
I agree with Just saying!!!
So, basically you have sealed bids and then tell the person you would rather have do it, what the lowest bid is so they can lowball it and get the work?
Way to go Riley!!! You are a very hard worker an very honest sorry that everyone don't feel the same!!
A classic case of "on the other side of the river" I would definitely say so. What Bloomfield School Corp. Has done is wrong. I dont care if Terrell is a good worker. It was still wrong. Shame on Bloomfield school!
On a related note, with upcoming budget cuts and school districts struggling, is there a reason to pay $20,000 to clear land when there are no future plans for it?
Isn't that $20,000 possibly better spent and the land cleared once there are actually plans in place to use it for something?
Agree with you, Cubhater. Just because there are no "statutory requirements", shopping bids is totally wrong, unethical and immoral. If you are going to negotiate with one, give them all a chance to rebid.
This is so wrong, and we wonder what is wrong with our kids.
I'd like to know where they are getting the money for these "facilities". after a $300,000 dollar budget cut? And The cuts are getting worse every year?
The money probably is in some sort of account that can only be used for facility improvements, etc. The school needs both blocks they will eventually purchase, and probably more. These purchases make a lot more sense than the field they purchased across the highway a few years ago. They should try to sell it.
Athletic fields and parking are all terrible.
I am surprised at the statement they have no idea of what they will use the grounds for. Looks like they would have some long range plans drawn up.
Kudos to Marvin Helms for the dissenting vote. How ethical are Bloomfield School District Board Members to allow this to happen? Shame on all of you. What are we teaching our children?
Next time Bloomfield School wants 'local', they should specify how many miles out of town. What about 6? 1? Whoops, they made a mistake and just want businesses on certain streets? In this case, because Bloomfield School District didn't specify what 'local' means, they should have honored the first lowest bid or given ALL the bidders a chance to re-bid.
What a lot of work these bidders did for nothing! Can the bidders sue Bloomfield School? I would try if I were them.
I wouldn't blame any business for never bidding on future work for the Bloomfield School District. Just hire Riley. This also puts a bad taste in my mouth to Riley Terrell Lawn Service. Who put pressure on Sichting to hire Riley$ Can we guess$