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Cass County Supervisors table action on bid recommendation

News

May 29th, 2014 by Ric Hanson

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Thursday) received bids for the reconstruction of the lower floor of a building at 707 Poplar Street, but did not approve the recommended bid. The Board instead took the matter under advisement, while the Omaha architectural firm of Carlson, West and Povandra, gathers specific information on a line-item of the costs the low bidder submitted.

Architect Matt Krause

Architect Matt Krause

CWP Architect Matt Krause told the Supervisors there were five bids submitted and reviewed last Thursday (May 22nd), for the renovation of the Cambridge Building destined for use as a new, Cass County Communications Center. Krause said the recommended a bid by TBB&M, LLC, out of Greenfield, with their lump sum bid of $356,000. He said the bids came in higher than the engineer’s estimate due to the later addition of a fully redundant HVAC system, generator and a gaseous fire suppression system.

The bids ranged from $356,000 to as much as $422,000, but were tightly grouped together for the most part, and generally under $400-thousand. TBB&M’s low bid was still about $100,000 more than the engineer’s estimate, but again Krause said that was because of the late additions to the bid spec sheet. The same company handled renovation of the Atlantic City Hall. The estimated completion date for the project is no later than December 15th. The bulk of the time delay is with regard to the ordering and installation of a 125-watt backup power generator, which is 75-watts less then the generator that backs-up the courthouse.

Cass County 9-1-1 Director Rob Koppert said he has no problem with TBB&M’s maximum completion date for the project, but it’s important that it not be any later, due to the requirements of a grant. He said it has to be operational by June 30th, 2015, because the County is applying for and in competition with, other counties, for a 100-thousand dollar grant to help pay for the Next Generation 9-1-1 system and servers. Other factors that figure into the deadline he says, are out of his control, such as change orders for the phone system, etc.

The Cass County 9-1-1 Advisory Council will be submitting its grant application by the end of June, with the hope the equipment can be ordered by July 1st. Ideally, Koppert says he’d like for the new Comm Center to be operational by end of November, 2015, but the Federal mandate is Dec., 2015. Koppert pointed out that the nearly $45,000 cost of the redundant air conditioning/HVAC system and generator will be paid for out of the County’s 9-1-1 Surcharge dollars, not from property tax dollars. He said they would have to amend the 9-1-1 Service Board’s budget, because they don’t have the money right now, but would be able to take a slightly bigger loan out they can be easily paid-off with fees received from the Wireless Surcharge.

(Updated 1:37-p.m. w/comments from Koppert)