(Audubon) Finalizing the Audubon County Courthouse HVAC project continues to challenge the board of supervisors. The County has been working on this project for over two years. No bids were submitted last spring, so the supervisors rebid it this month. Three contractors submitted bids, but there is one problem: the low bid came in 20 percent higher than the engineer’s estimate.
Audubon County Supervisor Chairman Doug Sorensen says the low bid came in at $2.83 million, and the high bid was $3.5 million.
On Tuesday, the supervisors reviewed the bids and conceded, across the board, that this was too much money. Sorensen says they have one million dollars in ARPA funding, and the county would kick in another one million. Sorensen says another $800,000 is too much for the county to spend.
Sorensen says the project will not have to be bid. The supervisors did not accept the bid until they backed the cost down to where they were comfortable. The supervisors will work with the low-bidder Graphite Construction to lower the price.
