Trustees Award Mowing and Shrub Contract to Only Bidder

trustees awarded a $52,365 contract for lawn mowing and shrub maintenance Monday night to the only bidder.

The contract covers maintenance through the end of 2011 on 63 sites around the village, in eight different special service areas, as well as 11 village-owned sites and one owned by the Kaneland School District. The lone bidder for the job was Waldschmidt and Associates, based in West Chicago.

Waldschmidt's bid was more than $7,000 higher than the engineer's estimate for the work.

Trustees were concerned that only one company bid on the job, despite roughly eight of them requesting bid specifications, according to Director Mike Pubentz. So last month, the board asked Pubentz to look into why the other companies did not ante up.

On Monday, Pubentz reported his findings. One of the companies intended to bid, but was too late. Two of the companies decided the scope of the work was too much to handle. And, Pubentz said, one company realized after pulling a bid that the work was not its specialty.

Trustee Bill Keck, who initially requested Pubentz check on the bids, said the answers satisfied him.

But Trustee Pete Heinz questioned why public works employees were not doing this work themselves. Pubentz said that his team did not have “the people and the man-hours to do this scope of work,” and Heinz responded that the village should then hire more public works employees.

Pubentz said the board should consider the cost difference between hiring new employees and paying to maintain these sites. But he did admit that having more hands on duty would help during snowstorms.

Heinz voted no on the contract. The remaining trustees voted for it.

Waldschmidt and Associates will work on sites in eight special service areas: Foxmoor, Fairfield Way, Orchard Prairie North, Arbor Ridge, Blackberry Crossing, Huntington Chase, Montgomery Crossing and Saratoga Springs.