Nearly three hours of the recent Dallas County Supervisors meeting was devoted to a single contentious topic: the bid packages for the construction of the new law enforcement center.

Bid day for the project was on December 12, and the County received bids for 14 bid packages from an assortment of contractors. After reviewing the bids, Construction Managers the Samuels Group recommended the acceptance of the individual lowest bids for each package. However, it wasn’t so simple as that. For starters, the County received no individual bids for the structural steel work, though two contractors, the Ball Team out of Urbandale and Lang Construction out of West Des Moines, had submitted comprehensive bids that included the steel work.

However, Samuels Group President Sid Samuels had reached out to a steel contractor through Lang, which didn’t bid the project because of their connection with the comprehensive bid. Samuels was able to get an accurate price, which still kept the total bid price of the individual bidders lower than the comprehensive bids, but the County would need to rebid the package. The Ball Team took umbrage to this possibility, saying they were the only ones who submitted a complete bid. The contractor threatened a protest to the bid process if the County went down that road, which could lead to a longer delay for the bid process.

The warning swayed Board Chair Kim Chapman, who also expressed concern over the risk involved with rebidding the steel work. However, Supervisors Brad Golightly and Mark Hanson were less concerned and moved to accept the individual bid packages with all alternatives, as recommended by the Samuels Group. The motions passed 2-1 in each case, with Chapman providing the dissenting votes. The combined amount for the 14 individual bid packages plus alternatives was $16,736,978, considerably under the original engineer’s estimate.

See below for a complete list of individual bid packages and the contractors awarded projects.

BP 3A — Concrete — Neumann Brothers Construction — $1,729,725
BP 3B — Precast — Molin Concrete Products — $951,939
BP 4 — Masonry — Midwest Masonry — $1,628,000
BP 5 — Structural Steel — all bids rejected
BP 6 — General Package — Edge Commercial — $2,863,889
BP 7 — Roofing, Flashing, and Accessories — Northern Cedar Service — $467,600
BP 11A — Detention Equipment — TTJ Holdings — $1,518,600
BP 11B — Laundry and Food Service — Buller Fixture Company — $329,370
BP 21 — Fire Sprinkler — Continental Fire — $316,605
BP 22/23 — Plumbing/HVAC — L.A. Fulton and Sons — $3,393,000
BP 26/28 — Electrical and Communications/Security Electronics — Van Maanen Electric, Inc — $2,322,200
BP 33 — Utilities — McAninch Corporation — $348,650