Southeast Polk board rejects transportation bids; approves $1.72 million baseball/softball contract

The Southeast Polk Community School District board on Oct. 2 voted to reject all bids on a transportation facilities project and to approve a $1,724,088 contract for baseball and softball field improvements.

During the consent and business portion, a board member moved to reject all bids for the transportation building and the board approved the motion. District staff recommended the rejection and said the project will be reissued using an alternative delivery method: construction management at-risk (CMAR), the same method used for a recent district office project. "We're going to recommend rejecting all bids on this particular project. We will go back out with this project plan. We'll use an alternative delivery method...construction management at risk," said district staff (speaker 10).

Separately, the board approved the administrative recommendation to award the baseball and softball improvement base bid plus Alternative 1 to Mid America Sports Construction for a total of $1,724,088. One board member noted the company previously built the stadium and supported selecting a familiar contractor. The motion to award the contract was seconded and passed by roll-call votes with affirmative responses recorded from the members present.

No objections or amendments to either motion were recorded in the meeting minutes. The transportation project will be reissued under the CMAR model; the baseball/softball contract is scheduled to proceed under the awarded contract terms.