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| Protest Filed Against Planned School Expansion in Knoxville |
A construction company that was the lowest bidder for the proposed expansion of a Knoxville elementary school, but not deemed by the school board there as the lowest responsible, is protesting that decision.
The Knoxville School District this week received a letter of protest from Michigan- and Chicago-based Gleeson Constructors, claiming the board acted inappropriately a week ago when it voted to accept the bid of Galesburg-based Hein Construction to build the proposed four-classroom expansion to Mable Woolsey Elementary School.
Gleeson's $1.6 million bid was $2,300 lower than Hein's bid. Gleeson claimed last week and in the letter that the board picked Hein on the basis of being local.
State law says you can't pick a bidder on the basis of them being local, and District-202 Attorney Shayne Aldridge told the board such when they made their vote, and a motion was crafted that made it clear.
Aldridge say, however, the vote could be made in part based on reputation, something the board said Gleeson didn't have because they haven't worked on any projects in the area.
A third bidder was disqualified because of an item left out in the bid specifications.
Aldridge told WGIL in an e-mail that the district not only met all bidding requirements, it still intends on moving forward with the construction, and that would be the case if and until a lawsuit were filed in Knox County Circuit Court.
Construction is expected to start soon and is scheduled to be done by the end of the year.
(Mable Woolsey Elementary School. WGIL News File Photo) |
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| 07 30 09 by Newsroom |
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