Happy New Year Everyone.
As we move forward into 2023 there are new changes coming to our wonderful area and still many challenges we are taking head-on. Tomorrow is a very important one. We are trying to slow down the awarding of a contract by our County Commissioners which we feel is way off according to national averages. You can read the details in our last 2 posts. As you can see we are scheduled first thing to speak to them on this issue Tuesday morning. But then you can also see they will be discussing and have put the time in to approve the contract as well. This HUGE overpriced bloated bid our county received for a new HVAC system needs to be reviewed. We need other bids. You can see above the times tomorrow that we will be discussing the new HVAC system. We need to delay so more people can have input. We need your help. Why so fast?
We have questions…
We have spoken to local HVAC installers who never even heard of the bid. How is it a job this size only received one bid? In this economic time that is extremely questionable, if not planned. The only bid coming in from the same Cheyenne, WY company that services the units now. Isn’t it strange that a job this size only received one bid? Way out of normal.
Is this Baked In?
This awarding of a bid is being pushed way too fast. No time for proper public input or even time to send out the bid to other contractors. It is also being pushed through during the holidays which begs us to question the timing of this as well. We feel more than one bid should be looked at. $766,000 of our tax money should not be spent on just one bid that is way above the national average for HVAC systems. Something is off. The way in which this bid is written could cost us a lot more money as they install it as well. This is not a good bid.
As we have said before. We would like the money to be awarded to LOCAL contractors if they can do the work. If not, what would it take to raise the abilities of our local HVAC installers so they can? Isn’t that the purpose of American Rescue Plan money? Wouldn’t that benefit all of us more than sending all our hard-earned money directly to a company in Cheyenne, WY for them to build up their area?
Something is amiss here. If we are going to survive this economic downturn and reduce the tax burden on all of us, we need to spend our money wisely. This is not happening with this bid.
Our Promise to the County Residents…
If our commissioners tomorrow approve this bid, the one and only bid we received, we will not stop. We are going to contact other HAVC companies around our area and out of state, with precise details of the equipment and installation and see what their bids would have been. If need be we will hire an HVAC engineer to see what the costs should have been to our county. We are going to compare more bids. We will get them. We are going to see what the true cost of this system should be in the national average. We are going to hold those who recklessly spend without investigating our hard-earned tax dollars accountable. We have a right to know the truth. That is going to happen here and in the future. Our county can not afford reckless spending. We need wise investment and growth. This is not over tomorrow. We want more bids from different companies. We need to stand together for wise spending.
One last thing…..
For those in doubt about this bid, think of it this way. The city of Sidney bought the Cabela’s building on 13th a couple years ago for 1 million. Beautiful brick building about the same size as our county building. We have checked the purchase and compared buildings. How is it you can buy a huge building for 1 million and a new HVAC system costs ¾ of a million? Does this make sense? It doesn’t to us. Something is way off and we are going to find out what it is and keep you informed.