Discussion broke out at Monday’s meeting of the Evangeline Parish Police Jury over changing out the cold water line of the chiller located outside the rear of the parish courthouse.
Parish Engineer Ronald Landreneau explained repairs have been done to the line over the years but was now time for a new one to be put in place. The plan, according to Landreneau, is to run the new line “up the wall and on top of the roof” instead of it being underground as is the case currently.
The issue, however, is over the bids to do the work. As Landreneau explained, the original low bid was from Johnson Controls in the amount of $126,087.90. That bid, along with the other one received, were rejected by the police jury causing the bidding period to be reopened. Once the second bidding period ended, the police jury received low bids from Johnson Control in the amount of $146,800.00 and Calcasieu Marine in the amount of $169,000.00.
Landreneau explained Johnson Control went up $20,000.00 after the police jury “eliminated a few minor items that went into the first bid of which we thought had a value of $6,000.00.”
He later told the police jury it has different choices going forward. “Your choices are to award to the low bidder or authorize the president to form a small committee to negotiate with the low bidder and see if they could find some value engineering in it,” Landreneau said.”
“It’s not completely unusual to have the price go up,” he continued,” but that’s usually as a result of lack of competition of a second bid or material cost.”
Juror Bryan Vidrine then said, “Those normal reasons are not in this. This was a gouging that Johnson Control did to us simply because we were trying to get more money in our budget. We cut items so we could get a lower price, and they went up on us $20,000.00 only because they wanted to gouge us.”
Vidrine then suggested going with Calcasieu Marine because Johnson Controls would have to use a sub-contractor to perform the work.
Landreneau again suggested the president to call a committee meeting “and come back to the police jury with recommendations.” He added, “I’m having a hard time recommending that you award to the low bidder without further discussion.”
President Ryan “Leday” Williams took Landreneau’s suggestion and formed a committee with himself and jurors Rocky Rider, Bryan Vidrine, and Ryan Ardoin. The committee will meet next Tuesday, July 16.
In other business, the police jury reviewed and adopted the 2019 millages and approved a trail ride for No Limit Riders and Style Riders at 1581 Fusilier Rd. in Mamou.
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TONY MARKS Editor