The Online Alaska
Pioneer Press
Pioneer Press
By John R. Moses
ALASKA PIONEER PRESS
PALMER — Collins Construction has been selected to
build the new Susitna Valley Jr./Sr. High School’s
replacement campus, Borough Spokesperson Patty
Sullivan said on July 23.
The winning bid, which will go to the Borough Assembly
next month, was $17,354,000.
Sullivan said the bids were all lower than the last round.
Collins was the winner of a previous bidding round that
the Borough set aside due to alleged improprieties in the
bidding process.
Collins' bid went down by $496,000. Roger Hickel
Contracting, Inc. lowered itsprevious bid by $207,000.
In the original bid the two were separated by only
$53,000, now $342,000 is the difference in their bids,
Sullivan said.
Borough officials are offering cold, hard cash incentives
to put the campus’ opening back on schedule for the 2009-
10 school year.
Incentives of $1,500 to $2,000 per day for finishing the
project early will expose the Borough to a maximum of
$300,000 in extra costs, but will get the job done as soon
as possible, Borough Manager John Duffy said on July 9.
"We're rolling along."
The Borough pushed hard to get the school district to
agree to take over a completed campus whenever it is
opened, even if that is in December 2009 when school is
in session, said Borough Purchasing Manager Rustin
Krafft.
To increase interest in the project, the first version of the
“re-bid” package had a December 2010 completion date —
more than a year past the date on a series of bids rejected
last month due to a possible violation of Borough bidding
policies.
The school district had earlier told the Borough that if the
school wasn’t ready by August 2009 it would wait to open
until 2010, Krafft said. Krafft said contractors in early July
told officials during a pre-bidding meeting that they didn’t
need until 2010, and incentives of $1,000 per day or more
for early completion would go a long way toward
speeding construction.
The re-bidding process is the latest complication in a
school rebuilding process where the cash issues have not
yet been sorted out. The rejected bid was a contract for
$17.85 million.
Krafft said the new bid will be a little higher because
winter construction costs are higher. He noted that a bid
of roughly $18 million could rise to $18,250,000 or even
$18.4 million depending on the level of bid incentives
involved in the package.
Any bid additions will be published on the Borough Web
site, Krafft said. Bids are due July 18 and the Assembly is
set to vote on the matter Aug. 5.
Krafft and Duffy said bidders have been told to be ready
to sign a contract Aug. 6 and get to work.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough cancelled the previous
construction proposal solicitation for Susitna Valley Jr./Sr.
High School citing potential improprieties and stating that
“people outside the bidding process that might have tainted
the bid.”
Borough Assembly member Tom Kluberton said he backs
the Borough’s decision to halt the process at the 11th hour
because the delays could be far worse should someone file
a lawsuit over the previous bidding process. As a former
state employee, Kluberton said he’s seen the damage the
legal process can do to the business of getting a project
completed.
Kluberton, whose district includes the school campus,
was brought in to the process immediately by Borough
Manager John Duffy.
“The crux of it is this: we can either wade ahead into a
protested contract award and risk the protest turning into
a lawsuit with the potential to drag out for years; or,
withdraw the solicitation, tune it up to be more defensible,
and re-issue it to keep the schedule within our control.
“Having just been through two years of court proceedings
to establish that we behaved appropriately in the Y
Community Council’s 2005 election turn-over, I had to
agree that maintaining control and facing a two month
delay is far better than risking a false start followed by
possibly years in court,” Kluberton wrote.
Kluberton said Borough staff looked at all the options.
“I wondered about dropping the two contractors involved
in the infraction and issuing the contract to the third-
runner-up but, when I was informed that bid was about
$5,000,000 above the other two that hope faded quickly,”
Kluberton said.
Insurers want to pay only for replacement of what was
there while the Borough, which is building the campus for
the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, wants
insurance to cover the cost of meeting modern building
codes.
Kluberton said he’s happy overall with how the Borough
has handled the situation created when the more than 30-
year-old school burned to the ground June 5, 2007. He
defended the Borough in writing to a constituent recently.
“The Borough did an almost unbelievable job of getting the
temporary school set up before school opened last year,
they’ve not wasted a minute and I can’t criticize anything
in the design or contract solicitation process so far.
Contention among bidders is certainly not uncommon in
Alaska and I doubt it’s any different in other states or
boroughs. It’s part of life in the big project world and we’
ll just have to ride it out. Sorry I don’t have a better
answer — a lot of good minds tried to pull a rabbit out of
the hat to keep on schedule and it just wasn’t in there,”
Kluberton wrote.
Dumping the old bids has caused yet unknown delays to
the critical project, which was due to break ground in
July. Borough Manager John Duffy said the situation was
unavoidable. “We are very disappointed that the proposal
solicitation had to be cancelled. It is a serious matter when
it appears that there are violations of our purchasing
procedures. We are using public funds and the integrity of
the process must be upheld. We will work in earnest to
get the high school built as quickly as possible,” said
Duffy.
Duffy said the key will be for crews to “get the footing
and concrete slab poured before freeze-up”
The cancellation was made in accordance with Section
2.12 of the Instruction to Proposers titled Rejection of
Proposals, a Borough press release stated. “The Borough
cancelled the construction proposal solicitation because
information was provided to the Borough that indicates
that activities that were in violation of the Request-for-
Proposals rules took place during the evaluation time
frame by individuals who were not associated with the
evaluation of proposals,” the Borough release stated.
“There is no indication that the solicitation was tainted by
MSB (the Borough), MSBSD (Matanuska-Susitna Borough
School District), or design consultant individuals.”
The activities that took place potentially undermine the
validity of the solicitation and may present an appearance
of impropriety,” the Borough stated.
ALASKA PIONEER PRESS
PALMER — Collins Construction has been selected to
build the new Susitna Valley Jr./Sr. High School’s
replacement campus, Borough Spokesperson Patty
Sullivan said on July 23.
The winning bid, which will go to the Borough Assembly
next month, was $17,354,000.
Sullivan said the bids were all lower than the last round.
Collins was the winner of a previous bidding round that
the Borough set aside due to alleged improprieties in the
bidding process.
Collins' bid went down by $496,000. Roger Hickel
Contracting, Inc. lowered itsprevious bid by $207,000.
In the original bid the two were separated by only
$53,000, now $342,000 is the difference in their bids,
Sullivan said.
Borough officials are offering cold, hard cash incentives
to put the campus’ opening back on schedule for the 2009-
10 school year.
Incentives of $1,500 to $2,000 per day for finishing the
project early will expose the Borough to a maximum of
$300,000 in extra costs, but will get the job done as soon
as possible, Borough Manager John Duffy said on July 9.
"We're rolling along."
The Borough pushed hard to get the school district to
agree to take over a completed campus whenever it is
opened, even if that is in December 2009 when school is
in session, said Borough Purchasing Manager Rustin
Krafft.
To increase interest in the project, the first version of the
“re-bid” package had a December 2010 completion date —
more than a year past the date on a series of bids rejected
last month due to a possible violation of Borough bidding
policies.
The school district had earlier told the Borough that if the
school wasn’t ready by August 2009 it would wait to open
until 2010, Krafft said. Krafft said contractors in early July
told officials during a pre-bidding meeting that they didn’t
need until 2010, and incentives of $1,000 per day or more
for early completion would go a long way toward
speeding construction.
The re-bidding process is the latest complication in a
school rebuilding process where the cash issues have not
yet been sorted out. The rejected bid was a contract for
$17.85 million.
Krafft said the new bid will be a little higher because
winter construction costs are higher. He noted that a bid
of roughly $18 million could rise to $18,250,000 or even
$18.4 million depending on the level of bid incentives
involved in the package.
Any bid additions will be published on the Borough Web
site, Krafft said. Bids are due July 18 and the Assembly is
set to vote on the matter Aug. 5.
Krafft and Duffy said bidders have been told to be ready
to sign a contract Aug. 6 and get to work.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough cancelled the previous
construction proposal solicitation for Susitna Valley Jr./Sr.
High School citing potential improprieties and stating that
“people outside the bidding process that might have tainted
the bid.”
Borough Assembly member Tom Kluberton said he backs
the Borough’s decision to halt the process at the 11th hour
because the delays could be far worse should someone file
a lawsuit over the previous bidding process. As a former
state employee, Kluberton said he’s seen the damage the
legal process can do to the business of getting a project
completed.
Kluberton, whose district includes the school campus,
was brought in to the process immediately by Borough
Manager John Duffy.
“The crux of it is this: we can either wade ahead into a
protested contract award and risk the protest turning into
a lawsuit with the potential to drag out for years; or,
withdraw the solicitation, tune it up to be more defensible,
and re-issue it to keep the schedule within our control.
“Having just been through two years of court proceedings
to establish that we behaved appropriately in the Y
Community Council’s 2005 election turn-over, I had to
agree that maintaining control and facing a two month
delay is far better than risking a false start followed by
possibly years in court,” Kluberton wrote.
Kluberton said Borough staff looked at all the options.
“I wondered about dropping the two contractors involved
in the infraction and issuing the contract to the third-
runner-up but, when I was informed that bid was about
$5,000,000 above the other two that hope faded quickly,”
Kluberton said.
Insurers want to pay only for replacement of what was
there while the Borough, which is building the campus for
the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, wants
insurance to cover the cost of meeting modern building
codes.
Kluberton said he’s happy overall with how the Borough
has handled the situation created when the more than 30-
year-old school burned to the ground June 5, 2007. He
defended the Borough in writing to a constituent recently.
“The Borough did an almost unbelievable job of getting the
temporary school set up before school opened last year,
they’ve not wasted a minute and I can’t criticize anything
in the design or contract solicitation process so far.
Contention among bidders is certainly not uncommon in
Alaska and I doubt it’s any different in other states or
boroughs. It’s part of life in the big project world and we’
ll just have to ride it out. Sorry I don’t have a better
answer — a lot of good minds tried to pull a rabbit out of
the hat to keep on schedule and it just wasn’t in there,”
Kluberton wrote.
Dumping the old bids has caused yet unknown delays to
the critical project, which was due to break ground in
July. Borough Manager John Duffy said the situation was
unavoidable. “We are very disappointed that the proposal
solicitation had to be cancelled. It is a serious matter when
it appears that there are violations of our purchasing
procedures. We are using public funds and the integrity of
the process must be upheld. We will work in earnest to
get the high school built as quickly as possible,” said
Duffy.
Duffy said the key will be for crews to “get the footing
and concrete slab poured before freeze-up”
The cancellation was made in accordance with Section
2.12 of the Instruction to Proposers titled Rejection of
Proposals, a Borough press release stated. “The Borough
cancelled the construction proposal solicitation because
information was provided to the Borough that indicates
that activities that were in violation of the Request-for-
Proposals rules took place during the evaluation time
frame by individuals who were not associated with the
evaluation of proposals,” the Borough release stated.
“There is no indication that the solicitation was tainted by
MSB (the Borough), MSBSD (Matanuska-Susitna Borough
School District), or design consultant individuals.”
The activities that took place potentially undermine the
validity of the solicitation and may present an appearance
of impropriety,” the Borough stated.
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Borough Selects Collins to
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Build New High School
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