The Sheriff ’s Department is buying two new snowmobiles, and it did its best to buy locally.
On Tuesday, October 26, 2010 Sheriff Mark Falk presented a capital purchase request to the county board for two snowmobiles in the budget for a total of $20,000. His department went to Steve’s Sports to see about buying them there, and found that they had one 2010 Ski-Doo Skandic WT 550 in stock for $8,823.60. They went to Duluth Lawn & Sport, where the same machines were available for $7,820.02 because Duluth Lawn & Sport was able to get a good deal by buying 25 of them.
Sheriff Falk requested authorization to buy one snowmobile from Steve’s Sports and one from Duluth Lawn & Sport. He recognized that he could save a thousand dollars by buying both from Duluth Lawn & Sport, but he said he would feel better about bringing the machines to Steve’s Sports for repair and warranty work if they bought one of them there.
The board approved the requested purchases. “Sometimes,” Commissioner Jim Johnson said, “there are things more important than money.”
HVAC bid conundrum
Two bids for courthouse heating, ventilation, and air conditioning improvements including more consistent temperature control and increased energy conservation came in very differently, leaving Maintenance Director Brian Silence asking the board if going with the only bid that addressed the issues adequately was acceptable.
The county has a federal grant in the amount of $80,000 that requires the work to be done by March 31. Thecounty promised to kick in at least $20,000 for the project that was expected to be $100,000 or more.
Silence told the board that Johnson Controls is considered a “nonresponsive bidder” because it did not include the cost of 66 of the 74 new temperature controls that are needed. Its bid states, “This proposal assumes the existing Johnson Controls direct digital controls are working properly.” Its bid was $88,000.
Theother bid, from Gartner Temperature Controls, stated, “The existing direct digital controls on these air handling units do not have the logic necessary to do modern energy conservation and IAQ [indoor air quality] control sequences and do not have an adequate operator interface to properly manage the building, therefore an update of the existing direct digital controls will be necessary to utilize these sequences.” Gartner’s bid was $116,000.
The county’s advertisement for bids stated that the existing direct digital controls needed to be replaced with updated controls.
County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers said he and Silence would prefer to work with Gartner on the project. Commissioner Jim Johnson said Duluth Steam has been disputing with Johnson Controls, and he heard the company, which has branches around the world, has been bidding low to get jobs.
A motion to accept the Gartner bid passed unanimously.
Snowplowing bid awarded
The county’s snowplowing bid was awarded to John Hilde, whose bid was the same as Dennis Burton’s, Brian Silence reported. “I’m recommending John Hilde because he did a great job last year,” he said.
Leave a Reply