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COLUMBUS — Colorado County officials intend to seek legal counsel from County Attorney Jay Johannes regarding bids for the renovation of the former Opportunity Center for the relocation of the Office of Emergency Management after unclear direction from the state, Monday, Oct. 26.
Emergency Management Coordinator Charles “Chuck” Rogers said the county received only two partial bids for the building’s renovation and remodel ing for the OEM and Justice of the Peace Precinct 4 court and office. Rogers described receiving vague or no answers from state officials on how to proceed if the mandatory bidding process for projects over $100,000 fails.
“I’m kind of at a loss without having direction. Does the county want to become the general contractor and piece-meal the work out? Do we want to go and consider going to an architect and have them detail and draw it all out, which adds to the cost of the project? Do we want to try and submit and advertise again?” Rogers asked the Colorado County Commissioners Court.
The court decided on consulting Johannes before broaching one of the three proposed paths but discussed each generally and potential explanations for the lack of bids.
Rogers said he received numerous phone calls from contractors asking for specific details like preferred materials and technology, compliance codes and security requirements, wall reconfiguration and more missing from the general plans sent to bid that would have been outlined in architectural plans.
“(The general plans) described what we wanted the outcome to be… but I’m wondering if some of the companies when they saw what we submitted said, ‘This is not enough information. I can’t bid this,’ and pushed it aside,” Rogers said.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Ryan Brandt said architectural plans would work well for large contractors but could result in higher costs and less flexibility than hashing out ideas with local contractors.
“I think that any of the local contractors can take this right here and sit down and ask questions and get pointed in a very good direction,” Brandt said.
Rogers said another complication with the bidding process was that an online project search service stripped out and showed contractors only the portion relevant to their company. Brandt added that local contractors generally do not look in the newspaper or on the county website for work.
“They’re word-of-mouth-type builders,” Brandt said. “…I think that there’s multiple local entities that are completely competent that can do this job. It’s just a matter of where they reached the right way possibly, and I’d say probably not because we didn’t get any bids from local contractors.”
If the county serves as its own general contractor or restarts the bidding process, the court suggested contacting local contractors to notify them of the project or advertising in larger metro newspapers.
The court took no action following its discussion.
