FAIRMONT– Several bids for the county impound facility reroofing project were discussed by the Martin County Board of Commissioners at their meeting earlier this week.

County Coordinator Scott Higgins said that bids were initially reviewed and while it was originally recommended to go with the second low bidder because of familiarity with their work, it was later discovered that both companies were having subcontractors do the work.

Of the eight bids received, Legacy Industrial LLC was the low bidder at $88,000 as the base bid for the entire project and Elevate Roofing Solutions had the second lowest bid at $89,600 as the base bid for the entire project.

Tim Auringer of Oleson & Hobbie Architects was present to speak more about the bids.

“We’ve been doing a lot of digging to find out more about both of the contractors and their subcontractors,” he said.

He said he’s never worked with Legacy Industrial and that they are not from the area but they indicated they would be using a subcontractor for the work. He said they’ve sent photographic evidence of similar work they have done.

“Barring any concerns legally, I think we should stick with them as the low bidder,” Auringer said.

Commissioner Billeye Rabbe asked if it’s typical for a contractor to get a bid and then give it to a subcontractor.

“Roofing seems to be the area where that is highly prevalent,” Auringer said. “It’s not an unusual practice.”

Commissioner Richard Koons had a question about the difference in cost of material and labor between the bids.

“Yeah it’s good to have good labor but is there difference in the product that there’s an $11,000 difference between the material on Legacy and the material on Elevate? We want this to last obviously so I’m concerned about the quality of the material,” Koons said.

Auringer explained that he has looked into that and that all of the contractors that bid have bid materials that meet the specifications that the county has in place.

County Engineer, Kevin Peyman, who is on the building committee, said, “if it’s a building project, for the whole building and the roof was part of it and they’re subbing out the work, but when it’s a roofing project and they’re subbing out 100 percent of the work, it just seems strange. I guess that’s my question.”

Koons again questioned why the labor was so much more than the materials. Legacy’s materials came in at $37,000 and labor at $51,000 while Elevate’s materials came in at $48,600 and their labor at $41,000.

He asked Auringer whether he’s worked with Elevate Roofing Solutions before and he confirmed he has but again said he has no experience with Legacy Industrial, which he said is the biggest downfall.

Rabbe made a motion to go with the building committee’s recommendation, Elevate Roofing Solutions, despite new found information. Koons seconded it.

“You can defend these decisions by lack of knowledge or lack of performance. We don’t have proven performance from them,” Koons said.

County Attorney Taylor McGowan said he didn’t know if lack of work made someone not a responsible bidder.

“I think the board would need to find something in addition to that. Otherwise you’re saying any bidder that comes that submits a bid, if you don’t know their work, you can basically discount them. That seems to undercut the competitive bidding process,” McGowan said.

Commissioner Joe Loughmiller agreed and said, “Why have a bidding process if we’re not going to follow the process?”

With a motion on the table, there was another 15 minutes of discussion and it was asked what legal obligation or repercussions the county could have.

Loughmiller asked if the county was tied to the lowest responsible bidder language. McGowan said they were because the county did a competitive bidding process.

“You can either put it out for competitive bids or solicit proposals and do a best value alternative thing,” McGowan said.

Auringer did say his recommendation was to stick with Legacy, knowing that if there were concerns he was comfortable going with Elevate.

In a roll call vote, Rabbe’s earlier motion to go with Elevate Roofing Solutions passed 4-1 with Loughmiller opposed.