By By William F. West / community editor
Dec. 3, 2002
It's back to square one for Lauderdale County as officials try to finish expanding an animal shelter.
County supervisors rejected a bid Monday from McElroy Mechanical &Environmental to spend $14,962 to complete plumbing work on the new building.
County Administrator Rex Hiatt said McElroy submitted a bid on its own letterhead rather than county bid forms. McElroy only bid on plumbing; the county originally wanted a bid covering electrical, mechanical and plumbing work.
Supervisors recently agreed to split the jobs. Hiatt said supervisors hired a company for the electrical work two weeks ago; they are seeking separate bids for mechanical and plumbing.
Lauderdale County took charge of animal control in January, with plans to add a second building to the center to take care of more animals. The exterior of the building is complete.
Hiatt said the project could cost about $160,000 and be completed by early March.
District 5 Supervisor Ray Boswell questioned fellow supervisors about whether they were successfully informing people about the available work on the animal shelter.
Boswell said something seems amiss citing the fact that the county has received few bids on mechanical work even though numerous air conditioning and heating companies are located locally.
Boswell recalled similar problems some months back, when the county received two bids for installing two new central air conditioning units for the county's archives office.
He said he believes those bids were $50,000 more than they should been: "Fifty-thousand dollars may not seem like much money, but it is."
District 4 Supervisor Hank Florey said he regretted rejecting McElroy's bid. Now, he said, other plumbing companies are aware of what it will take to beat McElroy's bid.
Board President Craig Hitt afterward said he's confused about why the county on a couple of occasions has only received bids from one company.