Contractor for new fire station appears to in place

The Picayune City Council made what appears to be a final decision on the award of the contract to build a new fire station near the intersection of Goodyear Blvd and Beech Street.

In summary, the council had to make a decision as to either accept or reject a bid that was the lowest submitted without a bid bond. City attorney Nathan Farmer addressed the issue of the technical violation of the bid specifications by Colony Construction LLC of Hattiesburg, MS. Farmer advised the council that it could waive the requirement if they so desired and accept the bid or could elect to not accept the bid for the omission of the bid bond and select the second lowest bid.

The council decided to reject the bid from Colony Construction in the amount of $558,900 and accept the second lowest bid which was submitted by Collier Construction LLC in the amount of $560,000.

Mayor Ed Pinero asked Farmer if he was aware of the city ever accepting an irregular bid and Farmer said he could not say for sure that had occurred in the past.

Ironically, Collier Construction had submitted a bid last year that was not accepted by the city for a similar irregularity the first time the city had requested and received bids for the new fire station.