Commissioners were wary of a bid that came in more than $100,000 beneath proposals by three Orcas Island firms.
But after some investigation, Orcas Fire Commissioners have tentatively accepted the $426,562 offer from Wellman and Zuck General Contractors to build the Deer Harbor fire station.
“Our responsibility is to award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder,” said commissioner Jim Coffin.
The company beat out the following bids: Rolf Eriksen of Happy Acres Construction – $589,712; Dwight Guss of Avalon Construction – $569,900; and Justin Paulsen of Terra Firma NW – $534,923.
Announced at a May 11 meeting, the contract will be finalized when Wellman and Zuck provide the required documentation and bond.
In September 2009, six contractors bid on an earlier design for the project, but the bids ranged from roughly $300,000 to $764,000 over the allotted $600,000 in levy funds granted for the construction. Fire Chief Mike Harris said that architect Ben Trogden has since reworked the plan to better reflect the budget. It includes an unfinished second floor and a half-finished first floor; the rest of the work will be completed later, as finances allow.
With offices and crews in both Bellingham and Friday Harbor, Wellman and Zuck has constructed several fire stations, including the current Eastsound fire station, two on San Juan and one on Shaw. The company has also built many large Friday Harbor projects, including affordable housing for the San Juan Community Home Trust, Roche Harbor’s Village Center, De Haro Townhouses, and UW Lab 10 and its student housing.
Harris and commissioner Clyde Duke said they conducted careful research, checking references provided by the firm, consulting with the fire district’s attorney and discussing the bid in minute detail with Wellman and Zuck to ensure both builder and board were in agreement.
According to Harris, representatives from all four stations he contacted said they were satisfied with the completed projects and would hire Wellman and Zuck again if they had the chance.
Harris told the board that attorney Frank Chmelik gave his legal opinion based on anonymous bid amounts.
“He told us, ‘If you throw out the lowest bid you’d better be able to show problems with the lowest bidder,’” said Harris, who also noted that a deal-breaker would need to be significant, such as a history of not completing work as promised.
Asked to explain his winning bid, Wellman and Zuck’s Mel Vogelzang said, “We basically had a lower profit margin … We have trucks ourselves that will transport stuff. We were just a little bit more aggressive than the other people.”
The company’s office manager Paula Shoemaker attributed the bid in part to good relationships with subcontractors who bid competitively to Wellman and Zuck on work like plumbing, electrical, framing or drywall.
Because the Deer Harbor station is a public works project, state law requires contractors (and subcontractors) to pay their employees the Washington state prevailing wage, often double real-world wages for similar work; for example, $48.47/hr. for a journeyman carpenter in San Juan County.
Payscale.com puts average Washington state journeyman carpenter wages at $15-27/hr., while the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks Hawaii, with a mean hourly wage of $30/hr., as the highest-paying locale for carpentry. The Washington state Department of Labor and Industries website says, “prevailing wages are developed from surveys (of average real world wages) and collective bargaining agreements.”
Vogelzang said that in the past, some subcontractors have submitted competitive bids by planning to do the work themselves; owner-operators are not required to pay themselves the unsupportable prevailing wage, working instead for the company’s profit. He didn’t specify whether the practice had influenced this bid. Vogelzang also said the firm will mainly use local subcontractors, with the exception of two off-island subcontractors.
Compressed air foam presentation
As part of a May 19 San Juan County Fire Chiefs meeting starting at 8:30 a.m. at Eastsound station, the fire department will hold a 10:30 a.m. demonstration of portable Compressed Air Foam Systems, or CAFS, super-sized fire extinguishers ranging from 30 to 60 gallons in capacity. Harris said the devices are regularly carried by the Montana state highway patrol.
