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Lincoln County awards HVAC contract to Comfort Systems after review of three bids
Summary
Lincoln County commissioners accepted a midline bid from Comfort Systems for county HVAC maintenance, citing on-site inspections and company professionalism; a public commenter questioned why the lowest bid was not selected given its lower price.
Lincoln County commissioners voted at their meeting to accept Comfort Systems’ mid-level bid to provide HVAC maintenance and repairs for county facilities. Joe, who reviewed the proposals, recommended Comfort Systems after in-person inspections and follow-up with bidders.
Joe said he chose the midline bid, noting "the amount of time that they spent here and the professionalism and interaction that we had" during site visits and unit inspections. He told commissioners the recommended bid was $16,354; the highest bid received was $32,860 and the lowest bidder’s paperwork appeared incomplete in the packet.
Commissioners moved and seconded the recommendation and approved the award by voice vote. The record does not show a numeric roll-call tally. The board said it expects to shift from a reactionary repair approach to a planned maintenance program, which one commissioner estimated would produce roughly $16,000 in savings this year compared with the current reactive approach.
During public comment, Tony Wickham of Libby (identifying himself as a neighbor with engineering and bidding experience) questioned why the lowest qualified bidder was not chosen given that the low proposal was roughly 40% less than the recommended bid. "If the low bid is qualified, they are qualified to do the work, why not take the low bid," Wickham asked. Joe responded that the low bidder’s submission was brief, the unitized line items did not add up to the total, and staff had difficulty reconciling the numbers; the bidder later described the submission as rushed.
The commissioners directed staff to notify all bidders of the selection and to proceed with contracting formalities with Comfort Systems. The county said the contract award is intended to support a preventive maintenance program rather than ad‑hoc repairs.
The county record did not include a detailed accounting of individual votes or a fully reconciled low-bid dollar amount in the meeting transcript.
