BLYTHEWOOD – At the May 27 town council meeting, Mayor Sloan Griffin asked for discussion and approval of a bid for the replacement of eight HVAC units at Doko Manor. He said there were three bids from Cool Care, Broom Heating & Air, and John Burns Heating & Air. The bids were not included in the council member’s or the media’s packets prior to the meeting, but were made available to the four council members during the meeting.
The Voice has since requested copies of the bids but was notified by town hall, via voice mail, that Griffin is now requiring that the bids be obtained through a freedom of information request.
Griffin said at the June 23 meeting that it was recommendation by the Director of the Manor that Cool Care be awarded the bid which was approximately $125,000 to replace six of the units from the general fund and two non-functioning units from the Capital Improvement Projects fund. Broom’s bid replaced all eight units in a single package at a lower price.
Council members expressed concern to Griffin about inconsistency of quote formatting, making it difficult to compare equipment to equipment. They also said there was a need for clarity on maintenance agreements and assurances that the selected in staller would handle ongoing service to protect warranties.
It was also questioned why the recommended bid was not the lowest bid which is required by the Town.
Griffin said that Layman had worked previously with Cool Care and that he was very pleased with their product and service.
McKenrick asked why the Interim Town Administrator Ed Driggers, with 25 years of experience with bids and purchases, and the Town’s Public Works Director Ronnie Gardner were not consulted regarding the bidding and recommendation for the units. Griffin told council members that he instructed Fred Layman, Director of the Manor, to get the bids and make a recommendation.
Because of the myriad concerns about the bid process, council voted to defer the vote to allow time for staff to gather additional information, ensure quotes are comparable and that all eight units are included in the bid, and prepare a more informed recommendation.
The motion was made by Page and seconded by Councilman McKenrick who asked Driggers and Gardner to look into the bid process and the condition of the eight units.
Report On HVAC Findings
At the Monday, June 23 regular council meeting, Driggers reported on his findings.
“We discussed at your last meeting in depth what our path forward may need to be relative to repairs and or replacement of certain air conditioning equipment in the building,” Driggers said, addressing council.
“I had an opportunity to stop that ball from rolling,” he said. “We dug into what has happened and what was occurring and what conversations have taken place with various vendors relative to our HVAC system here in this building.
“What we learned in that process is that we needed to make a few repairs and we did that. We now have all eight units functioning on the roof, functioning to provide heating and cooling to this building. All of those units are running, they’re running well. I am not proceeding with a replacement of those eight units at this time,” Driggers said.
“We had appropriated approximately a hundred thousand dollars for that project, but we made those repairs for about a thousand dollars and, so, I think saving ninety-nine thousand dollars is a good day’s work,” he said.
Driggers said he was going to proceed to have smart thermostats installed in the Manor.
“I think that’ll help us with our efficiency here in the building,” he said.
“We’re going to move forward with that. Also, our current agreement for the maintenance of our system has expired, so we’re going to resubmit proposals on servicing this facility on a month-to-month basis. I just wanted to bring you up to speed and to say we are not moving forward with doing a complete system overhaul or replacement at this point.”
