Board rejects bid offer for window project

At a special meeting of the Carrington School District Board of Education Tuesday afternoon, January 23, the district opened bids for the window replacement project on the east side of the high school building.

Only one bid was received at the meeting, that coming from TF Powers Construction Co. of Fargo. The firm submitted a bid of $492,200, a figure which came as a shock to school board members.

Another potential bidder on the tabulation summary list, Meridian Commercial Construction, also of Fargo, was contacted, but did not submit a bid by the board's January 23 deadline.

Consultant Mark Lundberg of YHR Partners of Moorhead, Minn., in attendance at the meeting, read the bid, and immediately let his feelings on the number be known.

"That's way out of line," Lundberg said.

School Board President Joel Lemer said that the district was hoping that the bid would come somewhere within the $250-$300,000 range.

"[The TF Powers bid] doesn't even include electrical or mechanical work," noted Lemer. "That's at least $200,000 over what we were thinking it was going to cost."

Lundberg suggested to the board to try and run through the bid process again, in hopes of attracting more reasonable project offers.

Board member Angela Kutz added that the district should reach out to local contractors.

Lundberg responded that invites were sent to contractors previously, but did not draw interest, partially due to company workload considerations.

Lemer said that he will attempt to get in contact with Central City Lumber to see if any affiliated construction companies are interested in the project.

With no further discussion, the board voted unanimously to reject the bid as submitted by TF Powers Construction.

The next scheduled regular meeting of the Carrington School District Board of Education is Tuesday, February 13, at 4 p.m. in the high school ITV room.