County commissioners accept $303,000 bid for jail fire suppression system

​YORK – The York County Commissioners have accepted a bid of $303,125 for the installation of fire suppression/sprinkler system in the York County Jail.

​They earlier opened bids but only received one. The bid, from Mahoney Fire Suppression Systems, came in at $347,000, which was higher than they had anticipated paying.
Following the bid opening, the project’s contractor, Davis Design, was contacted by Mahoney with the owner saying they had since received new information regarding building materials and other aspects which could reduce the cost of the project.
The commissioners had already tabled the matter so a decision was on hold. York County Commissioner Chairman Randy Obermier, upon hearing Mahoney wanted to negotiate down to a lower cost, said he contacted officials with the Nebraska Association of County Officials (NACO) “to make sure this would be completely legal and I was assured it was. We did all the necessary steps in the bidding process and they were the only bidder. Since then, Mahoney refreshed their bid and are now offering $303,125 as the revised cost. This would be for the same materials, same timeframe of starting after the design and then the two-month build time. This is much lower. It is in our hands now.”
He also noted how the money would be coming out of the inheritance tax fund.
“This bid is a lot better,” said Commissioner Joe Burgess.
“The morning of the bid opening, I think we all pretty much knew we’d accept the bid if it came in under $300,000,” said Commissioner Daniel Grotz. “And now we are a lot closer. I don’t have a problem with negotiating it as we only got one bid. Competition is good but if re-bid, we could still get bids which are higher than this.”
“And I just don’t think we would get any more bids as this is a very unique project,” said Commissioner Andy Bowman.
“This company has a good reputation and has done projects like this before,” Obermier added.
“And we all know a project like this always costs more when it’s installed in a building which has already been built, rather than having a system installed during the building process,” said Commissioner LeRoy Ott.
Everyone voted in favor of going with Mahoney.
This is a unique project as it will involve prison-grade materials and installation features, as well as having to be done among an incarcerated population which requires security measures.