Friday, June 24, 2005

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PTC picks high bid for asphalt paver

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Despite protests by one of the bidders, the Peachtree City Council selected a bid from another company for an asphalt paver at last week’s council meeting.

Council chose the only one of four bids determined to meet all of the specifications, which happened to be the highest: $46,550 from Reynolds-Warren Equipment of Lake City. A representative of Puckett Manufacturing in Loganville complained that the two bids it submitted were for equipment that could do the job, but Public Services Director Tom Corbett contended that the equipment offered in the selected bid would do a better job.

“We believe very solidly that what we put into our specs is what we need to get the job done,” Corbett said.

If the city were to lower its specifications so the Puckett equipment would qualify, it would have to lower the specs for all the companies and essentially re-bid the project, Corbett added.

Staff did a lot of research before compiling its preferred specifications simply because “our paving needs are so great,” Corbett said.

Councilman Murray Weed said he was worried about accepting the highest bid for the paver, and city staff agreed to research its bid acceptance history to make sure similar problems aren’t recurring. City Manager Bernie McMullen noted that for purchases under $4,000 that have been budgeted, he exerts final approval of bids instead of the City Council, so council members might not be as aware of those bid results.

Council also accepted a $5,925 bid from K&K Manufacturing in Griffin for a seven cubic yard dump truck body that will be used by the cart path maintenance crew. The body will be placed on a 1999 Ford F-350 chassis transferred from the fire department, and the result will be to prevent damage to the paths caused by the current use of full-size dump trucks for maintenance.