Bristow authority awards SH 66 water and sewer relocation contract to Temco despite lower bid

The Bristow Municipal Authority voted July 21 to award the contract for the SH 66 and 369th Avenue water and sanitary sewer relocation project to Temco Blasting & Coatings, Inc., a decision the authority said was driven by Temco’s municipal experience rather than the low bid. Trustee Judd Johns moved to award the contract and Trustee Joe Church seconded; the roll call recorded the members listed in the minutes voting in favor.

City attorney Beth Anne Childs told the board the highway widening from Depew to Bristow is being paid for by ODOT and that Holloway, Updike & Bellen handled the engineering and bidding. Childs said the lowest bidder had $3.1 million in work performed in 2024 while the second-lowest bidder had $47 million of work in 2024 and municipal experience, and advised the authority that choosing a higher-priced bidder requires documenting the reasons for the selection and publishing those reasons. Trustee Judd Johns identified the lowest bidder as Bolding Construction and stated the two firms’ prior work records were not comparable: "there is no comparison between the two companies if you look at the jobs they have completed." Trustee Randy Witty added, "you pay for what you get."

The bids submitted and recorded in the minutes were: Bolding Construction $423,575.00; Temco Blasting & Coatings, Inc. $523,663.75; Exodus Energy, LLC. $550,395.74; Accuracy Underground $633,414.00; Circle B Underground, LLC. $648,004.00; and Sapulpa Digging, Inc. $711,390.00. The motion to award to Temco passed on a roll-call vote as recorded in the minutes. Attorney Childs noted the authority must publish the selection rationale because the award departed from the lowest bid, and the minutes record that instruction.