September 12, 2007

Call for bids

I've mentioned in previous posts that the Grand Chute Fire Station project is open to all companies for bidding. The town is now taking bids for the excavation portion of construction. Bids are to be submitted to the town hall no later than September 18th. If you know someone in the excavating business, have them call the town hall for a bidding package.

I have personally been calling excavating companies to inform them the bidding process is open. The perception I've encountered is that Boldt is the General Contractor for this project and selects subcontractors from their pool. This is not true. The town is the General Contractor, Boldt is the Construction Manager, making sure construction is done in a timely and quality manner. The town has the responsibility for awarding contracts to subcontractors. Many companies have been pleasantly surprised when I inform them of this, and have been eager to place bids. With the slowdown in building, these companies are going to bid at their most competitive rate. I'm working hard to ensure this happens. Later this week, I will be meeting with Christine Schwanke, executive vice president of Valley Home Builders Association. One of the topics I will be discussing is if VHBA can help get the word out to it's members that we are accepting bids for this project. In the meantime, I will continuing making phone calls.

My goal is to have the project come in as much as we can under the $4.496 million dollar cap. Just because the money is allocated, doesn't mean we have to spend it.