By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A representative of Glassman Corporation addressed the Ellis County Commission on Tuesday about a $356,000 error in a bid for the new Public Works Building.
Paul Wertenberger Construction was awarded the bid for the project.
After the award, PWC started working with their subcontractors to review and order equipment and sign their contracts.
At that point, the mechanical and plumbing subcontractor, Glassman Inc., identified an error in their bidding documents which omitted $356,000 of their bid, which covered ordering all the equipment like HVAC units, sheet metal, ductwork, and plumbing fixtures and supplies, according to the commission meeting packet.
Those items had been zeroed out on the spreadsheet for the bid, Adam Goetz of Glassman told the commission on Tuesday.
Goetz said the company has taken steps to ensure the mistake does not happen again. He said the spreadsheets have been locked down with access by only certain key staff.
County Administrator Darin Myers said all of the four lowest bids used Glassman as the mechanical and plumbing subcontractor. This shows there should not be a change to the low bid, Myers said.
The total cost estimate of the project for this bid was $1,043,000. This change order would increase the subcontract bid from $556,766 to $748,916 or a difference of $192,150. This shows that even with the change order, the bid is still 25 percent under the projected cost, according to Myers' report to the commission.
Glassman Corporation notified PWC and Ellis County staff right away, Myers said in his report.
Glassman has agreed not to charge the county the full cost of the omitted bid amount. Instead, the company is only trying to recoup its cost for the project.
With the addition of fees for Paul Wertenberger Construction to manage the Glassman portion of the project, the total change order cost was $192,150.
Commissioner Nathan Leiker said he appreciated Glassman stepping up and sharing in the pain of the mistake.
He also asked if Glassman would be making any attempts to cut their costs on the project because of the mistake.
"We are not giving any cost savings or cutting any corners to make anything easier for us," Goetz said. "This is to do it just as we had originally planned, and it is just to bring us back to even. We don't think anything more than that would be fair to the county or anyone in the community."
Neal Younger said he had confidence Glassman would complete the project correctly.
Another change order included a recommendation to change the gauge of the metal building from 24 to 26 gauge. This would result in a $30,000 savings.
Myers also suggested the addition of a breezeway between the Noxious Weed Department warehouse and shop area, as well as increasing the dead load for the roof so that it could carry solar panels at a later date if the county would choose to do so.
All three changes accounted for a reduction of $20,800 in the price of the project.
The commission approved the two change orders unanimously.