County opens annual procurement bids for fuel, equipment rental and materials

Mercer County opened a series of procurement bids at the commission meeting, primarily for the highway and road department. County staff read acknowledgements or price lists from multiple vendors for categories including propane, diesel and gasoline suppliers, oil and grease, equipment rental and common excavation, tires, culverts, lawn care and gravel and scoria crushing.

For propane, prices offered in the opening included Farmers Union of Beulah ($1.30 per gallon), Rude Oil ($1.239), Ferrell Gas ($1.375) and Fitterer Oil ($1.285). For oil and grease, Neuberger Oil and Bitter Oil submitted multi‑line bids with differing totals; Neuberger’s combined total (including drum credit) was presented at $6,686 and Bitter Oil’s at $5,004.79 (note: anti-gel line was not bid by Bitter Oil).

Equipment rental and common excavation acknowledgements were received from several firms, including Hansen’s Excavating, Barranco Brothers, Antelope Creek Trucking, Unruh Trucking and Trotter Construction; prices for side-dump, belly-dump and other units were listed in bid sheets.

Culvert bids were received from True North Steel and Contact Engineering Solutions. Gravel and scoria crushing bids were received from Fisher Sand and Gravel and Suntree Sand and Gravel, with per-ton bids for scoria ranging from $5.50 to $7.68 per ton depending on vendor and crusher option.

County staff said they will compile the full bid packages, forward them to the road superintendent for recommendation and bring award recommendations to the commission at the next meeting. For fuel (diesel/gas), staff indicated they will send out a request each time fuel is needed and the lowest bidder at the time will be awarded those supply calls.