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By a 3-2 vote, the Panora city council approved the three low bids for a municipal building but not before one of the bids was challenged by a contractor who lost out.
Steve Pote, Mark Vogel and Andy Carson supported the $1,387,351 project that will house the EMS, police and city offices, while Stew Firebaugh and Mike Moore were opposed.
Downing Construction of Indianola had the low general contractor bid of $1,084,000, Climate Solutions of Carroll was the low mechanical contractor at $187,351 while Kline Electric of Ankeny's bid of $116,000 was low.
DCI of Indianola was hired in March 2011 to be project manager through competitive bids. It is a division of Downing Construction, which did not bid on the project last year, when all bids were rejected, but did this year.
CPMI Construction of Des Moines' bid was $6,000 above the low general bid. Its president, Richard Janssen, in letter and in person said there is a matter of ethics and fairness, charging Downing Construction as an affiliate of DCI had a competitive advantage in bidding and this affiliation is frowned upon by the Master Builders of Iowa.
Denis Frischmeyer is president of Downing Construction and CEO of DCi. He said at the meeting the two firms are separate entities and operate independently. He said Downing's bid was not influenced because of DCI.
The council voted on the general contractor's bid after meeting with city attorney Jeff Bump.
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©Guthrie Center Times 2013
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