Gundaker Asks Board to Reconsider Construction Bids for Peruque Valley, Heartland Parks

At the Wednesday night Board of Aldermen meeting, representatives from Gundaker Commercial Construction spoke during public comment time about their bid for construction services for Wentzville's two new parks, Peruque Valley and Heartland.

The item had been removed from the agenda earlier in the meeting, with board members citing a need for further information before making a decision.

Mike Seidel, the senior vice president for Gundaker Commercial Construction, asked if he could hand out a packet to the board, but he was stopped by Procurement Director Jerry Hillin and Interim City Administrator George Kolb, who said the bids were still considered to be under the evaluation process until the board voted.

Seidel was allowed to tallk, however, and he said that he was disappointed that his company's bid had been disqualified.

"We believe that Gundaker is the low bidder by a half million dollars," Siedell said. He said that he knew that some of the lines on the Gundaker bid had been left blank, but that the recommended bidder had also left lines blank.

Documents in the board agenda packet reported that the city received six bids for the project. Three of the bids were considered "non-responsive" for failure to submit certain items required by the bid process and were not considered.

The "responsive" bidders were Byrne & Jones Construction for $13,276,500, Kolb Grading LLC for $12,669,002 and C. Rallo Contracting for $12,463,000.

Staff recommended that the board accept the bid from C. Rallo Contracting.

Hillin confirmed to Patch that the bids are still in the evaluation process and that Gundaker Construction will not be allowed to change or resubmit its bid.