County opens bids for ballots, digital signage and Lockwood sidewalk; referrals sent to staff

Yellowstone County commissioners opened and acknowledged bids on June 3, 2025, for election ballot printing, Metro Park digital signage and the Lockwood sidewalk project, and referred each set of bids to county staff for recommendation.

The openings are a procedural step; staff will review the submissions and return recommendations to the board before any contract awards. Commissioners accepted the procedural motions by voice vote for each bid group.

For the election ballot printing request for proposals, the board opened bids from Seachange (Plymouth, Minnesota), Runbeck Election Services (Phoenix, Arizona) and Election Systems & Software (ES&S). The board recorded those submissions as opened and acknowledged and then voted to refer the proposals to staff for evaluation.

For Metro Park outdoor digital signage, the opened bids and amounts recorded in the meeting were: Billing Sign Service, $41,904.01; Yesco LLC, $113,007.50; Epcon Sign Group, $137,701.03. A motion to refer the Metro Park signage bids to staff was seconded and approved by voice vote.

For the Lockwood sidewalk project, the board opened bids that included Warren Transport (amount noted earlier in the packet), Askin Construction with a bid listed in the record as approximately $492,009.09, Knife River with a bid recorded as approximately $574,003.52, and another bid listed around $649,711.06. Commissioners moved to refer the Lockwood bids to staff for recommendation and approved the referral by voice vote.

All three referral motions were recorded in the transcript as motions that were seconded and approved by voice vote; the board did not record roll-call tallies in the meeting excerpt. Staff will review bidder qualifications, bonds and compliance with bid specifications and bring recommendations back to the commissioners for award consideration.