The Leesburg Town Hall is located on Van Buren Street.

LEESBURG —  Monday evening, Sept. 10, at the Leesburg Town Council meeting, a bidder was chosen to complete the Leesburg town hall building renovation project.

The building does not currently meet the requirements of the American Disability Act, which specifies that all public buildings be accessible by people who have a disability. Over the past couple of years, council members have reviewed options for the building, which included tearing the building down and having a new building constructed, remodeling the current building or doing nothing. The building cannot presently be used for meetings or public functions.

Sealed bids for the renovations were opened at the Leesburg Town Council meeting held last month. Base rate bids were received from Milestone Construction, Syracuse; Clint Davis Construction, Leesburg; D-T Construction, Silver Lake; Robinson Construction, Warsaw; and RocheSelect, with offices in Colorado and Warsaw. 

The bids were given to local architect, Tyler Haines, who reviewed the bids and submitted a comparison report to council members.

“Our purpose here this evening is to digest Tyler’s reports and hopefully select a bidder,” said Leesburg Council President Tom Moore.

Comparisons were made between prints submitted by four bidders regarding items such as windows, ceiling insulation, doors, stairwells, kitchen, brick exterior, carpet, tile, new concrete floor, toilet and accessories, a pass-through window/customer counter, gutters and the south curb outside the building.  

“I feel that Roche could be ruled out right away due to them being out of state,” said Council Member Christina Archer. “I think that dealing with an out of state company would be difficult for us.”

“It was more than just the cost of the bid they put in,” Archer continued. “The fact that we really don’t know who they may be using for their subcontractors is kind of a concern. On the plus side, they did have at least one local reference.”

“The next one I pretty much would rule out is Milestone,” said Archer. “They did have lots of things included, although they are not really specified. I have concerns there for some of the same reasons I did with Roche.”

“That brought me down to a choice between Robinson or D-T,” said Archer. “As I went through D-T’s, although their bid was the lowest, there were many additional costs added on.”

“With that said, Robinson is a local company that we know well, we’ve been able to see the work they’ve done on other local projects and I like the idea that they are using local, well-known, reputable subcontractors for their work,” Archer concluded. “Therefore, I have to recommend that Robinson is the best choice to complete this job.”

“I’m very much inclined to agree with your analogy,” Moore said to Archer. “All of your analogies. I’ve had many experiences with Robinson Construction and they are a very thorough company.”

“To me, this has always been about the best bidder, and from what I see in these bids and the prints, I feel very comfortable that this encompasses the scope of work that we desire,” Moore stated. “We want the addition to last and to look as good as the original building.”

“In conclusion, I felt that Tyler made a very specific and objective analysis of the plans and what was in the bids and presented it in a way that was clear,” said Archer.

“Robinson Construction does excellent work,” said Moore. “I think that, in the best interest of the town and the taxpayers’ money, you can certainly go to sleep at night knowing that you’re getting your money’s worth.”

Council members unanimously agreed to award the project to Robinson Construction at the bid price of $144,847.