Only a few 'select' firms got a crack at Sperry Chalet rebuild

Only a few select firms were solicited to bid on the first phase of Glacier’s National Park’s plan to rebuild the Sperry Chalet.

The Park Service normally solicits bids for projects through the FedBizOpps web site, where the specifications of the scope of work and other details are laid out in an open bid process.

That didn’t happen with the Sperry project, however.

“The solicitation for phase 1 of construction ... to take place in the summer of 2018 was approved by authorized parties to be issued using ‘other than full and open competition’ based on unusual and compelling urgency of this project,” Sally Mayberry, a spokeswoman for the Park Service’s Denver Service center said in an email to the Hungry Horse News. “The solicitation is not posted on FedBizOpps and is not available to the public. A limited number of capable firms were solicited. Their names are considered contractor bid and proposal information or source selection information, and cannot be disclosed per federal acquisition regulations.”

A typical bid process, Mayberry said, takes 120 to 150 days. Under that schedule, Sperry work wouldn’t have started this summer.

But federal acquisition regulations allow exemption from public posting under specific conditions including “unusual and compelling urgency,” Mayberry noted. While allowable, this is not a typical method of solicitation under normal circumstances, she said. Citing federal rules, she couldn’t disclose how many firms had been solicited.

The service center is overseeing the bid process.

The firms were solicited in May 15, two days after the Park Service completed an environmental assessment of the project. It was expected to be awarded June 14, with proposals due by June 4.

“The justification for this contracting action (other than full and open competition) and the contract award information will be posted on FedBizOpps after the contract is awarded,” Mayberry said.

The goal is to start work on July 1. The Gunsight Trail to the chalet has been cleared by crews to the snowline, in preparation for the project.

Initial “ball park” estimates for the project were in the $8 million to $12 million range, with upwards of 200-plus helicopter flights just to haul in supplies to the remote chalet, which is about 6.5 miles by trail nearly straight uphill from the Going-to-the-Sun Road at the base of Gunsight Peak. It will also use about 35 to 60 pack strings of mules to ferry supplies as well and a crew of workers will spend the summer up there working on the structure.

The main dormitory of the chalet was gutted by the Sprague Fire on Aug. 31, 2017. Only the stone walls, which were stabilized last fall, remain. The first phase of the project is to further stabilize the chalet walls and get a roof of some sort on it by the fall.

The next phase is to rebuild it completely next year. Mayberry said that the second phase will be a separate bid process and could conceivably be done by a different firm.

Rebuilding the chalet has been a high priority for Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke. The Whitefish native met with Park officials earlier this year in Columbia Falls to go over the plans.

Zinke has requested a $12 million appropriation for the project in the Department of Interior budget.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, applauded the move.

“Glacier’s Sperry Chalet hotel has been a place for visitors to stay for over a century,” said Daines in an email. “I thank Secretary Zinke for putting Montana’s priorities first and fighting to rebuild this historic building.”