MANSFIELD — The Richland County Board of Commissioners decided on Tuesday it’s cheaper not to take the Trane.
Instead, the panel opted to accept a lower bid from a contractor that will use a Daikin unit as part of an air conditioning system at the Richland County Courthouse.
Standard Plumbing & Heating from Mansfield submitted a bid of $431,688 to replace the existing aging roof-top system.
That was well below the $711,684 estimate provided to the county by Craig Christie with Karpinski Engineering. Stevens Construction of Marion offered to do the job for $705,212.
The biggest difference between the bids was in the HVAC manufacturer used and also the Mansfield company’s ability to use local, less costly sub-contractors, according to county administrator Andrew Keller and maintenance supervisor Josh Hicks.
The bid specifications had included a Trane model, but companies seeking the project were allowed to use comparable systems.
Christie and Hicks went over the bids with the contractors and the engineer recommended the county accept the lower of the two bids as the “lowest and best” offer for a new system officials hope will last 20 years.
“We rely on our engineer to make determinations as to if something is truly a comparable. It needs to be, so we’re satisfied,” Keller said. “That’s pretty common in a bid package like this.
“There are legal restrictions … if a bid comes in over the estimate … there comes a point where a public authority has to reject that bid by law. But there are no minimums as long as it’s responsive,” he said.
Commissioner Tony Vero said with a laugh, “Now we’re gonna have to start reviewing Craig Christie’s estimates with more scrutiny, huh?”
Hicks replied, “He said they’re engineers, not estimators.”
The project will include replacing the old system and installing new units on the roof of the five-story courthouse. During a bid opening May 14, Christie said it would be a 215-ton cooling system designed for commercial or industrial structures.
The contract calls for the work to be done in about 220 days once work begins. It will not be done during the heat of summer, Hicks said, and there is lead time needed to obtain the equipment.
It’s a dual HVAC system with built-in redundancy that will allow the unit to continue to operate at up to 80 percent while waiting repairs if one of the units fails.
