Bid Your Bidding “Bye-Bye”?

Note: The Paragraphs which follow include excerpts from a Public Legal Notice by the Merced Union High School District available on www.legalnotice.org via the Merced Sun-Star. It has been reformatted for “ease of reading” purposes.

 

 

“Notice to Bidders Project:

 

Supply all labor and materials and place underground in a pipe of 1,530 feet of the Merced Irrigation District Arena Canal beginning at the southwest corner of the 7^th Street and Peach Avenue then going generally west and south in Livingston California.

 

Notice is hereby given that the Board of Trustees of the Merced Union High School District (MUHSD) of Merced County California is calling for and will receive sealed bids for the award of a contract for the above project up to but not later than 2pm on January 20, 2009 at the District Administrative Office located at Castle Airport 3430 A Street, Atwater, CA 95301.

 

All inquiries concerning this bid shall be directed to

·        Garth Pecchenino of Fremming, Parson & Pecchenino Engineers of Merced located at 2816 Park Avenue, Merced CA 95348 (209) 723-2066 or to

·        Michael Belluomini, Director of Facilities Planning for MUHSD located at Castle Airport 3430 A Street, Atwater, CA 95301, phone (209) 385-6558.

 

Bidders may obtain a set of plans from Fremming, Parson & Pecchenino Engineers.

 

All work under the contract which may result from this bid shall begin on February 9, 2009 with inlet and outlet structures completed by March 1, 2009 and entire project complete by April 10 2009.

 

The amount of liquidated damages shall be $1000.00 per day.

 

Requests to use alternate products shall be submitted to the district at least seven (7) says prior to the bid opening in accordance with the bid documents.

 

Contractors License Classification required: B

 

Additional copies of the plans and specifications may be examined at:

·        Merced-Mariposa Builders Exchange, 410 West main Street, Merced, Ca 95340 

·        Valley Builders Exchange, 1118 Kansas Avenue Modesto CA 95351

·        Fresno Builders Exchange 1224 North Mariposa Fresno CA 93703

 

A mandatory Pre-bid conference will be held at 10:00 am on January 7, 2009 at the Livingston High School Principals Office located at 1617 Main Street, Livingston CA 95334. ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY

 

Miscellaneous Information Bids shall be received in the place identified above, and shall be opened and publically read aloud at the above-stated time and place.

 

There will be an $80 non-refundable charge to purchase each set of bid documents. No partial sets will be available.”

 

(Then follows several more paragraphs worth of technical information important to those Contractors with the right qualifications who might want to bid on the project. After that comes the last little of bit of “info” of interest to some of us “political junkies”)

 

“It is each bidder’s sole responsibility to ensure its bid is timely delivered and received at the location designated as specified above. Any bid received at the designated location after the scheduled closing time for receipt of bids shall be returned to the bidder unopened.

 

Date V. Scott Scambray Superintendent, MUHSD Advertised:

December 30, 2008 and January 6, 2009

 

Bid opening: January 20, 2008

 

Legal December 30, 2008 January 6, 2009”

 

 

Now wait just a minute…..anything having to do with relocating the MID Arena Canal is going to require coordination with the City of Livingston won’t it?

 

I mean. They can’t just bring in the bulldozers and backhoes and just start digging away. Can they?

 

If they start “tearing away” at the MID canal, won’t that affect traffic on Peach Avenue?

 (Ya think?)

 

The way I understand it, any discussion about what to do about the canal can’t really happen until the issue of Peach Avenue traffic is decided by the Livingston City Council. Last I heard there were 4 options on the table: none of which has been officially chosen as “the one”. When the topic first came up in June of 2008, there were several questions about exactly which option would be best for Livingston residents and just who would be “footing the bill”. The MUHSD was told in June, to come back with more details for the Council to consider. Only then, would they be able to properly decide during a Public Hearing, which of the 4 options would be explored.

 

The next possible opportunity for such a Hearing on those options is Jan 20^th, (the same day these bids are to be opened!)

 

That being the case: Isn’t soliciting bids on the “canal relocation project” just a tad premature?

 

Or am I missing something?