Construction company protests Millcreek Rec Center bid process

 (Millcreek Journal) Let the bidding begin . . . again.

Salt Lake County awarded Jacobsen Construction the bid for the new Millcreek Recreation Center project in December but in early January, one of the other five companies, Sahara/AP, in the final round of bidding protested the process county officials used to make their decision.

"We put the bid out in December and selected five contractors which were kind of the premiere contractors in the area," said Dick Chamberlain, Salt Lake County director of contracts and procurement. "We awarded the bid to Jacobsen because it was the low bid but Sahara protested."

Sahara's protest was based on the fact that Jacobsen Construction made an addendum in its bid, indicating it would lower the price on a particular item on the bid. Although the entire process was done legally, the addendum did cause a bit of head scratching, Chamberlain said.

"Addendum is a loose term for it," he said. "What it means is [Jacobsen] scratched some things out and put a new number in there but it was unclear what the number was for. So it was a handwritten note to the side of the bid indicating to take a certain amount out of the bid but there was a little ambiguity in the process."

Chamberlain added that county officials knew the other bidders wouldn't be happy about it. "It's a tough economy," he said.

Because of the protest, Chamberlain said county officials have decided to start the bidding process over again, allowing the original five contractors to submit another bid.

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