Bismarck firm gets construction contract
Bismarck firm gets construction contract
Professional Contractors submits low bid
By MARVIN BAKER
EDITOR
Following debate, questions and reference phone calls that lasted more than two hours, Professional Contractors of Bismarck was awarded the general construction bid Tuesday for an upcoming elementary school project that will add four new classrooms to the school and update the kitchen.
In addition, FD Walsh of Bottineau was awarded the mechanical construction bid and Bartsch Electric of Rugby was awarded the electrical construction bid.
“This is the culmination of efforts this board has gone through and found the need (to build),” said school board President James Odermann. “I hope we fit that bill today.”
Nine contractors were on hand as Donald Davison of Davison Larson Associates in Minot opened the bids to begin the meeting. Contractors, board members and media were given a spreadsheet to write numbers in as Davison read the letters aloud.
Professional Contractors, with a low base bid of $998,000, was among four bids for general construction. The others included MBA Construction, Billings, Mont., $1,000,098; Rolac Contracting, Minot, $1,152,600; and Wheeler Contracting, Minot, $1,242,000.
After school board member Ramona Two Shields made the motion to accept the low bid, Michelle Billadeau seconded. The vote was 3-2 in favor of the motion, with Carol Zacher and Karmon Taft voting against the measure.
Taft said the board is spending a lot of taxpayer dollars and should consider the situation more carefully before moving forward with the construction.
“We’re dumping a lot of money into this,” Taft said. “The high school kitchen is good in and of itself.”
