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The saga of the Grant County Civic Center South Room floor was resolved March 18 when the Grant County Commission voted 2-0 to award the bid to Miles Guadian by a 2-0 vote with commissioner Mark McGaughey absent. The commissioners and Civic Center Manager Mari Honstead eliminated J&M Floor Covering – which had the lowest initial bid of $29,841.89 - and Mobius Flooring of Ulysses, and their bid of $40,338.20, leaving bids by J&L Floor Covering and Miles Guadian up for discussion.
J&L Floor Covering bid was the highest at more than $46,000, and was potentially a 20-year floor, even though that was not guaranteed. Guadian initially presented a bid of $30,084.55 but the commission ultimately approved Guadian for $29,968.80, “Taking the taxes off,” said commission chairman John Martin.
“At one point, Mobius was on our agenda to come visit with us, but then she came to visit with (Honstead) and canceled with us, what was that about?” asked commissioner Darrin Figgins.
Honstead said it was ultimately about Honstead saying she doesn’t believe any surface that is scratch resistant, “And she had argued with me on that,” Honstead said. “I said with their product, there’s no way we could fix that, we couldn’t wax over it. And she said ‘Maybe we could come touch it up,’ but they’re not gonna want to do that a lot.
“I told her I really respected they stood behind their product like that, and they believed in it, but I just didn’t think that was the place for it.”
Mobius called county clerk Anita Lane and removed themselves from the agenda.
Figgins said there were variables left out of the J&M bid and questioned the accuracy of the bid. Honstead said incidentals were not factored in.
Between the two remaining bids, Honstead said she didn’t know which would be the best way to go.
“I feel like L&L is a turnkey job, you’re not tearing anything up, what you see is what you get off the top,” Honstead said. “We know the tile that’s there now, there’s no risk of uncovering problems underneath.”
Figgins said L&L’s bid was way too high, and Honstead said that was because of the product that they’re putting down. But Martin worried about the risk of cracks.
“No matter what you do, you’re going to run the risk of cracks,” Honstead said.
Martin said the $17,000 difference in the bids could be used for other things.
Figgins asked how quickly the work could be done, and Honstead said she would like to have the work done a couple of weeks before the fair, which is in July, but the schedule is filling up fast so she might have to just block it off during an event.
L&L claimed their floor would last 20 years, which Figgins questioned.
“It’ll take 20 years to find that out,” he said.
Figgins made the motion to award the bid to Guadian and Martin seconded the motion.
•The commission authorized Register of Deeds Julie Widder $1,600 to fix a large, flat copier for her office. She said the copier is about seven or eight years old and Martin said if it were older he would suggest a new one, but since it isn’t, so just fix the one she has.
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