Bannock County opens bids for landfill entrance; commissioners take offers under advisement

Bannock County commissioners on Sept. 4 opened six sealed bids for construction of a new entrance to the Bannock County landfill and voted to accept the bids as submitted and take them under advisement for legal and responsiveness review.

The county read aloud the bidders and several bid amounts during the public bid-opening. The transcript shows Alpine Construction Management LLC listed a total project cost of $5,782,100 and Engineered Structures Inc. a bid of $4,072,334. Sloan Security Group was read as $187,690.75. The recorded amounts for three other bidders—listed in the transcript as Gale M Construction LLC, RS Jobber Incorporated and Whitaker Construction Company—were not clearly legible in the meeting transcript and are therefore not specified here. The county noted that reading a bid amount does not confirm that the bid is responsive or complete.

County staff told the commissioners that a bid bond was required with each submission and that a performance and payment bond would be required of the successful bidder before signing a contract. The solicitation included one addendum in response to questions received prior to the bid opening, the transcript shows.

After the bids were read, a commissioner moved to accept the bids "as submitted and take them under advisement." The motion carried after an oral vote; the transcript records the motion-maker as the primary unidentified speaker in the record and records the vote as "All in favor, say aye. Aye." The transcript did not record a second, nor did it provide a roll-call tally showing individual commissioner votes.

County staff said contractors who submitted bids will be notified once the project is awarded and that further review will be performed to confirm bid compliance and responsiveness. Staff also advised bidders they could follow up with the named contact after the meeting to ask questions about the bid-readings.

No further project schedule, contract award date or funding breakdown was given on the record at the meeting. The county did not state whether the award would be contingent on additional approvals or outside funding in the recorded discussion.

The bid opening was limited to reading the sealed offers; commissioners did not engage in extended discussion of project scope, alternates or evaluation criteria during the public bid-opening portion of the meeting.