By Katie Northcott, News Director
Two construction companies submitted a bid protest regarding the bid process for a contract to complete renovations to the Carden-Jarrell Stadium in Manchester.
Representatives from Thrash Construction Services, LLC and Brindley & Sons Construction, Inc. appeared at a special call meeting of the Coffee County Board of Education on Thursday, June 18. Both representatives asserted that their company was illegally passed over for the contract.
“Our goal is to resolve this the right way and do it without litigation, but we also have to be clear,” said Ross Hutchison, Brindley & Sons’ lawyer. “If this isn’t corrected, Brindley will have no choice but to pursue its rights.”
The Board awarded the contract to Sain Construction Company at its meeting on May 11 with a 6-1-1 vote (Scott Hansert opposed, Chris Koon abstaining). Sain Construction submitted the third lowest of six bids.
Brindley & Sons submitted the lowest bid for the contract at $1,447,400, Thrash Construction submitted the second lowest bid at $1,687,725, and Sain Construction’s bid came in at $1,815,300. Wold Architects and Engineers, an architectural firm retained by the Board, recommended that the bid be awarded to Brindley & Sons.
At the May 11 meeting, Board members expressed concerns that Brindley & Sons’ pricing might indicate the company would “cut corners” to complete the project at a lower cost. Board Chairman Freda Jones expressed concerns about Brindley & Sons’ quality of work on projects at New Union Elementary School and North Coffee Elementary School.
“I don’t want any shortcuts if we’re going to do this,” Jones said. “It’s $368,000 difference in the two local companies. … Is it apples to apples?”
Brindley & Sons and Sain Construction are both based in Manchester.
Jacob Cherry, an Associate at Wold, and Kelvin Shores, Deputy Director of Coffee County Schools, assured the Board that Brindley & Sons would be legally bound to complete the project without cutting corners and within the budget submitted in its bid. Shores emphasized that Wold would oversee the project.
“We have worked with Brindley & Sons before. They are the ones that did portions of North Coffee, portions of New Union. They also built the majority of the high school CTE new building,” Shores said. “Whoever takes on this job, they have plans that they have to follow. … The job should be done the same, it doesn’t matter which one it is.”
Jones asked a representative from Sain Construction, who was present at the May 11 meeting, if he thought his company would do something “more elaborate or better” than Brindley & Sons.
“No, we have to all follow the plans and specifications outlined. There’s no shortcuts. There’s nothing that any other contractor could do or possibly try to get away with if they’re managed correctly,” the Sain Construction representative said.
Ultimately, the motion to award the bid to Brindley & Sons failed 5-2-1 (Robert Gilley and Beth Yentsch in favor, Koon abstaining).
Hutchison asserted that state law dictated that the contract should be awarded to the lowest bidder unless the Board had a legal basis for passing over the lowest bidder. He said the Board passed over Brindley’s bid solely on the basis that the bid was the lowest. He also expressed concerns that the Sain Construction representative’s statements may have swayed the Board’s vote.
“When I went back and reviewed the public notes from the meeting, there was a lot of questions about whether this was a good time to spend the money. And we’re still giving it to a higher bidder? It makes no sense,” Hutchison said.
Brindley made a statement defending his company’s quality of work. His statement was as follows:
“New Union project, I had nothing to do with it. You have roof leaks out there. I wasn’t even on the project. North Coffee Elementary, you had problems with leaks through the windows on the metal building. They got down and was damaging the oak flooring. I did the oak flooring, but I did not have the bid package for the metal building and did not do the installation on the windows. I did not fail to put in the flashing that was supposed to be there. So, I feel that y’all have made a decision–I’m getting blamed for some quality issues that are not mine. That’s my point.”
At its June 18 meeting, the Board members present voted unanimously to rebid the contract. The Board’s legal counsel said the rebid was legally allowed while Hutchison said the rebid would give the company’s competitors an unfair advantage since Brindley & Sons’ bid is now public.
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