With a bare quorum of 3 out of 5, VLCIA Chair Mary Gooding said they had finally purchased their own office space and would henceforth pay neither lease nor rent using our tax dollars. I’d like to congratulate them for a thorough public bid review.

Project Manager Allan Ricketts reviewed the project including the bids on “the second document in front of you” that the taxpaying public didn’t get to see. He did summarize the bids, and they even showed them on a slide:

A board member wanted to know if the bids were all local. Ricketts said they were.

Mr. Matt Hart, with IPG, project manager on the project, clarified that 4 of 5 are local, and Taylor Construction is out of Thomasville. He elaborated that another firm did not provide a bid Barber(?) Construction out of Morven. All bidders provided a 10% completion bond. Hart provided much more detail of the process.

All the bids came in over the target of $232,000, so the slide also lists alternates. Even with alternates, Kellerman came in with low bid. Alternates were for things like parking lot, paint interior or exterior, stair nosings, etc.

Eventually the board voted to accept the low bid.

Here’s more background.

Here’s a video playlist:

Videos: Special bid review meeting
Review bids for new office,
Special Called Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland, Mary Gooding, Chairman, Jerry Jennett, Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton, Attorney, Tom Davis, CPA, Allan Ricketts, Project Manager,S. Meghan Duke, Public Relations & Marketing Manager, Lu Williams, Operations Manager,
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 October 2013.

-jsq

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