The Anchor Bay School District Board of Education voted June 25 to award a districtwide plumbing contract for Filter First bottle-fill stations to Thumb Heating & Cooling for $350,410, administration said.

District staff reviewed bids and conducted post-bid interviews. Amanda Wiley (district staff) told the board the lowest bidder, Ecker Mechanical, appeared to propose using service technicians on an as-available basis rather than a dedicated project crew and did not fully answer questions about masonry and electrical work. Wiley said Thumb demonstrated a dedicated team and capacity to meet the grant’s installation timeline.

Wiley said the state-funded Filter First round requires one bottle-fill station per 100 students per building and that this award covers only the bottle-fill installations; additional plumbing work such as kitchen filters would depend on a potential second round of grant funding and is not included in this contract. The grant total is $385,000; the awarded contract was $350,410. The board approved the award on roll-call vote.