Lackawanna County is seeking fresh bids to convert a former medical office building into the county’s Criminal Justice Center after issues with the first round of bidding.
The county purchased the $875,000 building at 1380 Wyoming Ave. last year with plans to convert it into the future home of Central Court. Advocates of the project tout the building’s location behind Lackawanna County Prison as a major benefit, arguing the county could save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in inmate transportation costs.
Commissioners seemed prepared to vote last month on almost $3.2 million worth of construction contracts for the project when they appeared on the board’s Oct. 23 meeting agenda. Those contracts included: general trades, Mar-Paul, $1,955,000; HVAC, Robert Harrington, $505,000; plumbing, Scranton Electric, $244,950, and electrical, Joyce Electrical, $495,000.
Commissioners instead tabled the matter, did not bring it up for a vote at the following meeting on Nov. 6, and ultimately decided to rebid the project. A new bid notice appeared in Tuesday’s edition of The Times-Tribune.
Reached this week, county General Counsel Donald Frederickson said officials decided to solicit new bids after one bidding firm — Scranton-based Scartelli Construction Services and General Contractors Inc. — withdrew and resubmitted their bid after the 11 a.m. submission deadline but prior to the 2 p.m. bid opening Oct. 17.
The firm’s owner, Don Scartelli, said his company didn’t withdraw its original bid, but modified it prior to the bid opening after discovering an error in their original submission. That error, he said, stemmed from confusing and ambiguous language in the county’s original bid specifications related to an alternate bid for roof coating.
Scartelli also argued the county’s bid specifications allowed his firm to modify its bid prior to the official opening, and that the firm “did the county a favor” by flagging the confusing language in the bid documents.
Frederickson rejected the idea that the county’s original bid documents were flawed, noting officials consulted with the county’s engineering firm, Greenman-Pedersen Inc., and architect, the Palumbo Group, and determined the bid specifications were properly formulated. He also said the county considers Scartelli’s modification of the original bid a withdrawal.
Scartelli said rebidding the project is unfair to the firms competing for the contract. Now that they know what their competitors bid originally, the firms are likely to submit lower bids the second time around, he said.
“The county will probably save money on (the project) but it’s not fair for the people that are submitting bids,” Scartelli said.
The fairest way to handle the situation is to solicit new bids, Frederickson said.
“We’re trying to remain transparent, we are trying to remain above board and we are trying to do this fairly for everyone,” he said. “We determined it would just be cleaner to rebid the whole project.”
New bids must be submitted to the county controller’s office by 11 a.m. on Dec. 13. The county will hold a mandatory pre-bid meeting at the project site Nov. 22, beginning at 10 a.m.
While the bidding issue delayed the project, officials noted much of the work will be done inside the building through the winter. County Engineer Gary Cavill said the project could be completed by April.
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