Low bidder gets TIGER project

In a narrow vote, Whitefish City

Council agreed with city staff recommendations to award a contract

to the lowest bidder for the U.S. 93 and Second Street Improvement

Project.

Mayor Mike Jenson broke a 2-2 tie at

the Aug. 22 meeting in favor of giving the contract to LHC, Inc.

Phil Mitchell and Chris Hyatt were opposed. Bill Kahle and Ryan

Friel were not in attendance.

Councilors hit Public Works director

John Wilson with a barrage of questions about why LHC’s bid was so

much lower than the other two bids from Schellinger Construction

and Nelcon, Inc.

Typically a city or planner likes to

see project bids bunched close together. An extraordinary low

number could be a red flag that a bid is off, bringing costly

change orders later.

LHC’s bid was for $2.153 million, below

the engineer’s estimate of $3.157 million and lower still than

Nelcon’s bid of $2.878 million and Schellinger’s bid of $2.65

million.

Wilson told the council he and the

staff had pored over the numbers and that they were comfortable

with the bid. He guessed that in the down economy, LHC might be

willing to take a hit on their profits in order to keep their crews

busy through the fall.

“The majority of the bid made sense,”

Wilson said. “Contractors do take less to hang on to good

people.”

Both Mitchell and Hyatt were concerned

about taking a bid that falls so far below both the engineer

estimate and the other two bids.

“I question the disparity,” Hyatt

said.

Mitchell noted that LHC put down the

asphalt on a reconstructed block of Central Avenue that later

needed to be replaced.

“They stepped up to the plate and took

care of it,” Wilson said. “These are proud people at LHC. I don’t

expect they’ll let it happen again.”

LHC is currently doing the sewer work

around town.

Wilson envisions any change orders

being kept to less than 2 percent of the project cost.

The low bid will leave about $670,000

of uncommitted funds in the $3.499 million TIGER grant that is

financing the project. The city has committed $85,000 in Wastewater

Funds for additional sewer improvements.

Work on the improvement project is

slated to start Sept. 12. Wilson notes that detours and street

closures will impact traffic flow through the major

intersection.