A project originally budgeted by Villa Hills to cost $250,000 drew only one bidder who offered to do the job for $940,000, nearly four times the target price, Councilman and Chair of the Public Works Committee Seth Thompson reported to City Council Wednesday evening.
Villa Hills is slated to build a new salt storage facility on the city’s public works site on Rogers Road. For years, the city has been leasing a space to store road salt in Crescent Springs from a private property owner. That owner has asked for the city to move off the land as soon as possible, Thompson said.
In response, the city hired an architectural firm to design the new salt bin, and a request for bids to build that design was closed earlier this month. Only one firm submitted a bid, but the $940,000 price tag is unfeasible for the city, Thompson said.
“We’ve got to look at other options,” councilmember Scott Ringo said. “A million dollars? I’m not voting for that.”
The council discussed a new course of action that they hope will reel in that price tag: to reject the bid and submit a new request for bids that includes amended language, making the current blueprints receptive to cost-reducing changes.
The council ultimately voted on motions to adopt both of these measures.
“Option two is to basically let the bidder say, ‘Well, we saw your plan. We can do it this way for cheaper,’” Thompson said.
Council member Jim Cahill asked if the rebidding process could set the project behind schedule, ultimately leaving them without a place to store salt come winter. City Administrator Craig Bohman explained that if they start the process of opening a new request for bids quickly, a new bid could be presented to the council at their meeting next month.
Thompson mentioned that another firm showed interest in making a bid, but they did not attend the mandatory pre-bid meeting, which disqualified them from vying for the bid.
“That gave them the ability to just kind of set the price,” he said, referring to the sole bidding company.
