Commissioners postpone acceptance of bid for fire suppression system in jail, will negotiate with contractor

YORK – The York County Commissioners have postponed any action on accepting a bid for the new fire suppression system in the county, in order to negotiate with the lone bidder.

​The lone bid came in at nearly $400,000, which was higher than earlier anticipated.
The architect of the project contacted the commissioners since the bid was opened, saying the bidder asked to visit with the board about the bid, said York County Commissioner Randy Obermier.
“I checked with NACO (the Nebraska Association of County Officials) to make sure that would be OK,” Obermier said. “The company, Mahonney, is foreseeing some cuts to the bid and NACO said we should be able to negotiate if they (bidders) want to. We can postpone action on this so we can see what they are offering. They really want to talk and I think we should listen to what they have to say. And we still have the ability to reject the bid if we want.”
“I agree,” said Commissioner Daniel Grotz. “I think that would be the right thing to do and it is within our right to do so. And as Randy said, we can still reject the bid and go back out to see if we can get more bids if we want.”
The commissioners agreed to postpone action until they have an opportunity to negotiate with Mahonney.
The fire suppression system in the jail is being required by the state fire marshal’s office before any expansions or construction work can ever be done again at the courthouse. The jail and courthouse is grandfathered, because when it was built in the 1980s, fire suppression systems were not required. However, the fire marshal can make this requirement now – they did so after the commissioners talked about expanding out the garage area on the south side of the courthouse.
This project will be more expensive than typical commercial fire suppression/sprinkler systems because it has to be “prison grade, tamper-proof” and the installation work itself will be more tedious because of working around security issues and the existence of inmates during the entire process.
The commissioners have said the bidding company has experience in this type of systems, in penal institutions.