City Commissioners were scheduled to vote on a $3.5 million construction contract during their Feb. 6 meeting.

Staff was recommending awarding the contract to Wadsworth Builders for the Great Falls Police Department evidence building.

The project will be funded with American Rescue Plan Act dollars, which are federal COVID relief funds.

City Commissioner to consider $3.5 million contract for GFPD evidence addition

The project includes the construction of a roughly 8,000-square-foot addition onto the south side of the existing GFPD building.

The city amended the commission agenda on Feb. 6 recommending that commissioners postpone the award to their Feb. 20 meeting since a formal protest was filed by James Talcott Construction, the other bidder on the project.

Staff is recommending the delay to allow them more time to fully evaluate the protest.

The bid was broken into a base bid plus contingency, with two additional alternatives.

City approves contract for GFPD evidence addition

While reviewing bids, staff noticed different interpretations by the bidders.

The bid form indicated that a 2.5 percent contingency of the base bid was to be included in the base bid, according to staff.

Wadsworth added the contingency line item to the base bid while Talcott added it to the total base bid, according to staff, but it didn’t change the overall lowest bid.

Staff confirmed the numbers with bidders and continued their review.

Talcott Construction filed a formal protest and staff are “thoroughly reviewing the issues raised by the protest,” according to the updated staff report, and request the additional time to prepare their recommendation to the commission.

Jenn Rowell

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