Listen to this Crap!

[lkindle]

About a week ago I gave a bid to our local Parks and Recreation Department for irrigation on the new football complex. Complex called for 4 full size fields. I bid the job at 72,000 and another local guy bid it at 78,000. We were the only local guys to bid. Somehow a company out of Kansas came in here and bid 60,000. How did he even find out about it? Is there somewhere you can look on the net to get info on those kind of projects?

[Wet_Boots]

Wasn't there a newspaper announcement(s) of competitive bidding for the project?

[lkindle]

yes, but he lives in the middle of kansas and I am from the middle of Missouri, he doesnt get our newspaper.

[Mike Leary]

yes, but he lives in the middle of kansas and I am from the middle of Missouri, he doesnt get our newspaper.

Was a maintenance contract a part of the bid? I'd bet he'll install the system, screw it up and you'll get the job to fix it. Seen it many times. :cry:

[lkindle]

probably, but still how did he find out?

[Mike Leary]

probably, but still how did he find out?

Your local paper is on the w.w.w.?

[zman9119]

tax payer money... public information. Could be on their website. Newspaper. Online somewhere. Maybe they contacted them or someone locally tipped them off.


Anytime you deal with tax money and public projects, someone from far far away will always bid it. We have a local Illinois company that bids (and wins) jobs in IN and CO all the time.

[lkindle]

really gripes me because I was a big supporter of supporting the tax levy that built those fields then they do that? They should atleast give me a chance to get within 10 percent.

[FIMCO-MEISTER]

Well if you've got little to do when he puts the job in you can be the unpaid inspector. Get the spec sheet and make sure he doesn't miss a dotted i nor a crossed t. Maybe he'll slip you a grand to go away very quietly. I saw it work on THE SOPRANOS.

[Wet_Boots]

Hey, competitive bidding is competitive bidding. If you were willing to do the work for less than 60K, you could have bid accordingly.

[SoCalLandscapeMgmt]

I'm subscribed to half a dozen notification services that send me faxes and e-mails weekly that notify me of upcoming public and private sector jobs that are out to bid. I get notices for stuff that is out of state all the time.

[zman9119]

Its all how you work the system too. I worked at a park district in the golf division and there were always ways to get around bid requirments too. In Illinois at the 10,000$ point it has to be bid so you would split bid down into "phases" and get them priced down to 9,500$ then 5,500$ for a 16,000$ project if you wanted one contractor to get it. That way it was still "legal".

[Mike Leary]

My people got so sick of getting screwed over that they hired me to design the systems and make sure the specs were followed; I was not the most popular guy on the site, but since we were taking over service after the "warranty" expired, it was a smart move on their part.

[AI Inc]

probably, but still how did he find out?

Possibly Dodge reports,or gvmt publications that list public work , or quite possibly if he is a heavy hitter his supply house would have tipped him off to it as they were probably bidding it too.

[Dennis Spencer]

Here's the link to Dodge.If you bid any Gov. jobs you better read good and be ready for late pay.
http://dodge.construction.com/

[WalkGood]

Too bad public projects are not required to be at least an in-state contractor.

There is little incentive for an out of state contractor to do a good job on a 60K project. As in, can your local government get them back for any warranty issues?

[Mike Leary]

you better read good and be ready for late pay.

Yup, exactly why I got out of those; gov. jobs were typically three months out; commercial as bad or worse.

[DanaMac]

Yup, exactly why I got out of those;.

You didn't "get out", you were "run out" and you know it :laugh:

I'm glad I never got into much commercial or gov't work. I've heard horror stories about getting paid. I know guys that have gone back and removed heads, RPs, controllers in the middle of the night. One apartment complex went into foreclosure half way through the project. Sat idle for about 2-3 years. Don't blame a guy for taking it all back out, even if it is illegal.

[MOlawnman]

lkindle---did you actually put in a bid? There were two local contractors that bid that job, myself and another. The bids were $61,550 (mine) and 87,150 (the other guy). Neither of the two local bids were from you. In fact there was not a bid submitted for the amount you stated. The winning bidder is from Columbia, MO which is about 70 miles away.

If you are going to post on here, at least make sure you state facts and not half-truths. Just my opinion.

[dKoester]

You got served!!!!

[Wet_Boots]

I was going to bid 31,000 - but they wouldn't let me install Lawn Belt :)

[unit28]

Big Moe and Slim use The Blue Book
http://www.thebluebook.com/links/ilheadpg2.htm

[Clock Doc]

Alot of government agencies use Demand Star. http://www.demandstar.com


:usflag:

[hoskm01]

You got served!!!!
Served hard!

How often does the other contractor that bid on it lurk here and call you on it!

What was the real winning bid, Lawnman?

[MOlawnman]

The winning bid was actually $59,800 so that part of the post was correct. However as I said, the winning bidder was from the middle of Missouri and not the middle of Kansas as stated in the post.

[Kartanimal29]

We bid a town job also recently and a Kansas Co. Won the bid. I wonder if it's the same Co.? They won the bid only 10K over the price of materials.

[WalkGood]

Before convicting lkindle, let's give him a chance to respond. Perhaps he "heard it through the grapevine" from a reliable source.

MOlawnman: where did you find out the bidding details $$$ (all bids and winner)?

[MOlawnman]

I found out about the bidding numbers because I was at the bid opening. I wrote all the numbers down. About two hours after the bid opening the parks dept sent out an email with the bid tabulations. There were only five people there; three bidders (of which lkindle was not one) the parks director and a representative from the engineering firm.

[Kiril]

I bid 30K ... after getting the HD price sheet. ;)

[lkindle]

lkindle---did you actually put in a bid? There were two local contractors that bid that job, myself and another. The bids were $61,550 (mine) and 87,150 (the other guy). Neither of the two local bids were from you. In fact there was not a bid submitted for the amount you stated. The winning bidder is from Columbia, MO which is about 70 miles away.

If you are going to post on here, at least make sure you state facts and not half-truths. Just my opinion.

For your information, I was working with the parks department and the football league on the project. I was the one that got them to do the irrigation in the first place, somehow I was left out of the bidding process. When we first started I told them what I thought it was going to be. If Chris bid 87,000 and you bid 61,000 wouldnt you have been within 10 percent of the winning bid. Who is telling the truth? Did I actually submit a sealed bid, no, I dropped the ball, but you should have the bid if you bid what you said, I would have even been happy if Chris would have got it instead of a guy from out of town. I was under the impression he was from Kansas.

[bicmudpuppy]

Sedalia isn't exactly that far for many KCK firms to bid. I've done bids farther than that into MO when working for KS firms. IF Columbia is home for the winning contractor, then they would have been competing with KC companies as well. With that kind of competition, be glad the bids were even in the right ball park. In this economy, I would expect a lot of that level of competition to be bidding at or near cost, just to keep crews busy.

[Mike Leary]

In this economy, I would expect a lot of that level of competition to be bidding at or near cost, just to keep crews busy.

As long as there is a good set of plans and a owner's representative who is either the designer or knows sprinklers on the site daily, there are usually very few problems. I have designed large systems and caught the low ballers breaking all the specs and made them rip it out. :hammerhead: