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Vendor says tariffs, extra site work drove higher price on gym audio and lights
Summary
At a Lake Park Audubon School Board meeting, contractor Dave Farber told trustees manufacturer price increases and excluded site costs—travel, specialized wiring, lift rentals—helped push a bid approved earlier this year above prior estimates; board members pressed for documentation and a tariff timeline.
Dave Farber, the installer for the district’s recent gym audio and stage‑lighting upgrade, told the Lake Park Audubon School Board that manufacturer price increases and tariff announcements after the original quote drove much of the increase between the November 2024 quote and the contract executed in March 2025.
Farber said the district was given quote #241114‑1P on Nov. 14, 2024 and a contract was subsequently executed in early March 2025. He told the board that certain items called out in the written quote—travel, scissor‑lift and boom rentals, electrical rough‑in, recycling and some wiring—were not included in the package price and could be billed as additional costs. "Since we last quoted the project there have been equipment cost increases from a few manufacturers," Farber said, explaining that some manufacturers announced tariff‑driven price changes after the quote date.
Board members asked whether the district’s deposit timing exposed it to tariff increases and whether the contractor had applied tariffs to items paid before the tariff effective date. Farber said material is ordered after receipt of the deposit and that stock availability and the timing of final engineering affect when parts are purchased; he offered to provide a timeline of tariff announcements and invoicing to the board.
Trustees also pressed Farber on travel and per‑diem charges after seeing relatively large totals on invoices. Farber explained multi‑stage visits, multiple crew members and the desire to consolidate large blocks of work to minimize repeated travel, and said some costs were absorbed by his company—he cited a nearly $2,000 equipment rack upgrade and repairs to walkway lighting that were not billed.
Farber said four of five invoices had been paid and that a final invoice remained, which he estimated in the mid‑teens of thousands of dollars. On warranty and support, he said a 90‑day warranty noted in paperwork was a typo and that the district would be covered by a one‑year warranty from the date of completion; he said the company had provided an operations guide and would follow up with training and documentation.
The board did not take formal action on the contract at the meeting; members asked administration to collect contract paperwork, the invoice trail, and a tariff timeline for follow‑up.
