Sixty-two homes in Los Trancos Woods won’t be getting sewers this year, because the low bidder has refused to sign the contract to do the work; JMB Construction wants more money.
The West Bay Sanitary District promises to re-bid the project this year, and begin construction as early as possible next year.
In a letter to the 62 property owners who are paying for sewers, General Manager Time Clayton wrote, “I want to assure you the District remains committed to this project.”
The dispute arose after the district board on May 17 awarded the contract to JMB Construction for a low bid of $2.0 million. The only other bidder was Ranger Pipelines, which submitted a much higher bid of $2.8 or $3.5 million, depending on the route of the sewers.
Shortly afterward, JMB Construction claimed it had made errors in its bid, and asked the district to renegotiate the price.
In his letter, Mr. Clayton argued that JMB had not documented any errors. He wrote, “The District has rejected the assertion that JMB mistakenly underbid the project by $500,000 to $700,000.”
At its meeting Monday, July 10 (after the Almanac’s deadline), the board will consider a recommendation to reject the other bid from Ranger Pipelines. This bid was $700,000 to $1.3 million above the engineer’s estimate, Mr. Clayton wrote.
Meanwhile, the district board has conducted several closed sessions about possible litigation against JMB. One option could be to reclaim the 10 percent performance bond posted by JMB, Mr. Clayton said.
— Marion Softky
