Staff writer
Bids for Marion County’s jail construction varied by as much as 16.5 percent when they were opened Thursday afternoon.
Architect Andy Pitts of Treanor Architects P.A. will review the bids with the commission and make a recommendation on Monday.
The lowest bid was by Loyd Builders Inc. of Ottawa, $3,055,000. The highest was by Construction Services Bryant Inc. of Wichita, $3,562,125. The average bid was about $3.3 million.
A special election in April approved a sales tax and bond issue to finance the project. The maximum bond issue allowed by the election is $3.51 million.
However, base bids won’t be the only thing for Marion County Commission to consider in awarding the contract. Construction times varied from a low of 320 days for B.A. Green Construction Inc. of Lawrence (base bid $3,175,000) to 400 days for The Konrath Group of Kansas City, Mo., (base bid $3,246,000) and Decker Construction Inc. of Coffeyville (base bid $3,295,000).
The commission also has nine bid alternates to consider. Those include changing materials for certain parts of the project and adding longer archiving of surveillance videos.
The most significant alternates were for a vertical extension of the secure jail area to a second story. The area would be an empty shell, but it would make it much easier to expand the jail space if necessary in the future. Alternate bids for that ranged from a minimum of $215,000 for The Law Company Inc. of Wichita (base bid $3,289,000) to $360,000 for Altmar Inc. of Topeka (base bid $3,243,000).
Other bidders were Straub Construction of Shawnee (base bid $3,439,000) and Universal Construction Company Inc. of Lenexa (base bid $3,380,000).