County reads single $194,000 bid for archives elevator; matter sent to procurement for review

The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners on May 20 read a single bid of $194,000 from Schindler Elevator Corporation for an elevator replacement at the county archives and referred the matter to the Department of Procurement for further review.

Bree Roberts, director of physical assets, told commissioners, “we have received 1 bid for this project, which is the elevator replacement for the archives facility. This bid is from Schindler Elevator Corporation located at 2301 Bendix Drive in South Bend, Indiana 46628. Per the documentation in the bid packet, Schindler Elevator's base bid amount is $194,000. Again, $194,000, and that is the only bid that we received here in person.”

Commissioners then moved and seconded to turn the bid over to procurement and archives for additional review and recommendation at a later date; the motion carried with voice votes recorded as “Aye.”

The reading fulfilled the agenda requirement to open and read bids and letters of interest; no other bidders in attendance requested the bid be read. The county did not take a final contract award at the meeting and directed staff to return with recommendations and any required procurement steps.

Details provided at the meeting indicate the bid packet included a base bid only; any additional alternates, contingencies, or contract timeline were not specified on the public record during the reading. Commissioners did not discuss funding sources or project timeline during the bid reading.

The item will return to the board when procurement and archives staff have completed their review and made a formal recommendation.