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Council approves $133,336.93 award for Two Rivers Lumber Mill; one-bid receipt prompts questions
Summary
Alexander City approved bid #2601 to Empire Pipe & Supply for $133,336.93 for the Two Rivers Lumber Mill project. Councilors questioned why only one vendor bid; procurement staff explained outreach and said rebid or negotiation are options when only a single bid is received.
The Alexander City Council voted to award bid #2601 to Empire Pipe & Supply for the Two Rivers Lumber Mill project at $133,336.93 after staff and the project engineer said the price was reasonable.
“ The bid is actually lower than what the projected cost was,” Unidentified Speaker 1 said when introducing the item, and later the award was moved and passed.
A council member raised procedural concerns about competition: “with numbers like, a $133,000 project, normally you'll have multiple people that will, you know, provide a bid… Can you explain the steps you typically take to solicit vendor participation?” (Speaker 6). Sasha, the staff member handling procurement, outlined the outreach process: posting on the required public bulletin board, posting on the city website and vendor list, sending notices to similar municipalities and boards of education, and recruiting vendors identified in related projects. Sasha said it is not typical to receive only one vendor on similar material projects and that the city has options to rebid or negotiate if only a single bid is received.
“ So try to reach out to as many people as possible but it is not normal that we receive 1 on something like this,” Sasha said, adding that deadlines and last-minute submissions can limit visible participation until the last day.
Councilors and staff said they had consulted the project engineer and Lynn, who found the submitted price acceptable. The council approved the award by voice vote with no recorded roll-call tally in the transcript.
The council did not direct rebidding or further procurement action at the meeting but acknowledged the competitiveness concern and the staff explanation.
