Triad School District bypasses lowest bidder on part of new TMS construction
By Charles Bolinger
Editor
Despite having the lowest cost of the mechanical contracting companies that competed to work on part of Triad’s new middle school, the district’s board of education chose to bypass that company last month in favor of the second-lowest bidder.
Typically, when a public entity like a municipality or a school district spends taxpayer money on a project, they almost always go with the lowest possible qualified or responsible bidder.
Other variables may factor into the decision – has the company worked for the city or district before? Can others vouch for their work performance and quality? What is their overall reputation in the community? There are also exceptions, such as using a sole source bidder, but that is not common.
In this case, four mechanical contractors bid on the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) portion of the new Triad Middle School, also known as bid package #23. Prior to its Oct. 27 meeting, the school board awarded the bid to Millstadt’s Hock Inc. The other two companies bidding were EL Pruitt at $4,294,271 and Jen Mechanical at $4,580,000.
Bid package #23 is part of the overall $99.2 million bond issue package approved by district voters on April 1. Other than the school’s furnace and air-conditioning units, most of the work will involve installing thousands of feet of ductwork and vents.
Wayne Downing, a project manager and estimator for the Baer, based in Trenton, spoke at the board meeting, seeking answers.
“On tonight’s agenda there is the recommendation by Holland Construction Services,” he began. “We would like to address the HVAC portion of the project. Holland’s recommendation is not the lowest bidder. We were the lowest bidder.”
He said the final bid differences between the companies amount to $120,863. Holland Construction is the construction management company for the bond issue project.
“We have done work in the past for the Triad School District as far as service work and we’re currently working on a project with Millennium Construction and we feel that this decision is not in the school district’s, the school board’s or the taxpayers’ best interests,” he concluded.
As is district policy, the Triad School Board does not engage in back-and-forth conversation with the public during board meetings. Usually, committee level meetings are where people should engage in conversations with district officials.
For Kyle Baer, it came as a stunner to find that Triad bypassed his family’s company for the next most expensive one.
“We were pretty shocked by it,” he said of the decision. “We never heard from Holland Construction or Triad that we were not going to be awarded the bid.” He said they found out through perusing school board meeting minutes the Friday before the Oct. 27 school board meeting.
Unofficially, the Baers said the company was told that Holland Construction did not believe Baer had enough manpower available to do the work. Kyle Baer disputes that, citing a surge in recent company hirings and the ability to pull other employees from local unions as needed.
Baer said he thinks Holland Construction has a “preferred” mechanical contractor other than Baer. He added that it was odd that no representatives from FGM Architects or Holland Construcion attended the recent board meeting. Both companies have previously had at least one employee attend meetings during the summer and fall.
He said the company has worked with FGM on previous projects so it is not as if Baer is some company that no one has ever heard of before.
A reporter emailed Triad Superintendent Dr. Jason Henderson and Brian Mattingly, the director of facilities, for answers.
Henderson and a reporter spoke by phone on Oct. 30. He said many things that can render a company not responsible or disqualified such as when a company fails to supply all required documentation; if the company’s bonding information is missing, or if they have bad references. He said none of those situations applied in this situation but that Baer had been deemed not responsible.
He cautioned that, “Due to the threat of a potential lawsuit from Baer, I’m not going to be able to provide much specific detail at this time as to why they were not chosen.”
Henderson confirmed that Baer is working with Millennium Construction on the Knights’ Crossing project, a house in front of Triad High School that will be used by the district’s young adults to learn and practice the skills they need for independent living. He also said the company has worked on previous district projects. Henderson added that Knights’ Crossing site is a fraction of the size of the new middle school, so the projects are not comparable.
On Oct. 29, Randy Baer, Baer Heating and Cooling’s owner, spoke to the same reporter about the situation.
While he admitted that his company does not get every project it bids on, he said the school district violated state statute by not choosing the lowest qualified or responsible bidder for the work. He said the statutes, too, have changed over the years and now, many places use a construction management company like Holland or S.M. Wilson to facilitate projects.
Baer said that the construction management facet of the project also should have been put to bid but it was not or the Triad Board of Education should have voted on it.
Baer said his company has evolved since 2006 and that he has been in the mechanical contracting business since 1990. He said there are certain standards that he tries to maintain as a businessman and leader of a company.
He said he employs three cost estimators and when they receive a bid like the one for Triad Middle School, it can take three to four days for the estimators to review the entire project and follow the process steps and he can invest anywhere between $6,000 and $10,000 to respond to the bid request in addition to the funds lost by not getting the bid.
Baer repeated the claim his son made earlier, that Holland decided to decline the bid because it doesn’t believe Baer has enough employees to do the work. The elder Baer cited four different unions in the area from which he could draw workers from if needed – Belleville, Caseyville, Collinsville and even St. Louis.
The next Triad Board of Education meeting is Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the district’s administration building, 203 E. Throp St. The new Triad Middle School should be ready to open, weather permitting, by the end of summer 2027.
