LAKE COUNTY ? Addressing needed water system improvements in Spring Valley Lake, the Lake County Board of Supervisors voted not to award a contract for the improvement project in favor of giving more consideration to a Lake County firm.
The Lakeport engineering firm Ruzicka Associates Civil Engineering and Surveying will have another shot at securing the contract after the board declined to award the bid to the Redding firm CH2M Hill. The board opted to waive regular bidding procedure because of economic conditions and the 16-percent unemployment rate in Lake County.
“I am totally committed to taking care of our own. When we have a bid like this from somebody that we have absolute confidence in, we have to consider that. Unless we want to end the future process of having local bidders bid these projects, we need to give serious consideration to all of our local vendors,” District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown said.
Lake County Special Districts Manager Mark Dellinger said he followed the procedure in a recently adopted county policy that gives preference to Lake County businesses in the bidding process.
He said a committee consisting of representatives from Lake County Public Works, Lake County Community Development, the water system”s advisory board and Lake County Special Districts selected CH2M Hill because of its experience with Spring Valley Lake”s water system and its superior bid.
Board Chairwoman Denise Rushing, whose district includes Spring Valley Lake, said a bid needs to be awarded soon in order for the project to qualify for grant money, and to lift an almost three-year moratorium on new hookups in the subdivision.
“Based on our local experience and close proximity to this project, and our desire to really do a cost-effective design for that community that will hopefully create good construction jobs for the unemployed in our area, we feel like we can do an outstanding job for Spring Valley Lake,” co-owner Nancy Ruzicka said.
Ruzicka and Associates was one of six bidders who submitted proposals for the project after Lake County Special Districts sent out a request to 12 engineering firms in 2008. Ruzicka and Associates” bid for the water system design came in $91,740 lower than CH2M Hill”s bid.
Dellinger said the bid from Ruzicka and Associates was rejected because the firm did not estimate a dollar amount for the construction and inspection phase of the project, a figure he said the bid request instructed bidders to specify.
Ruzicka told the board the cost was to be determined based on the firm”s cost for subcontractors. She estimated the cost might be close to another bidder”s $47,493 bid for the design and inspection phase, almost half of CH2M Hill”s estimate.
Rushing said the decision might discourage outside bidders; Brown said awarding the contract to CH2M Hill could discourage bids from area firms.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
