Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Bids Opened For Gurdon's Rural Water Project

Bids were opened for the Gurdon Rural Water Project, Thursday, Jan. 22, though no company was chosen to do the work at this time.

However, the apparent low bidder was G&S Trenching of Arkadelphia. This company submitted a bid of $1,031,24.95 for the overall project.

On the other end of the spectrum, S&J Construction Co. of Jacksonville was the high bidder at $1,669,867.27.

In all, nine construction companies submitted bids for the project.

The apparent low bidder for the water tanks was NWA Steel Company, Inc., of Springdale at $104,028. Its bid was for a welded steel tank.

Blue Glass, Inc., of North Little Rock had the high bid at $142,436 for a bolt together fiberglass bond tank.

Sefco, Inc., of Tulsa, Okla., had a bid of $109,160 for the welded steel tank, while Circle P Welding of Norman, Okla., had a bid of $122,484 for the steel tank.

There were only two bids on the well drilling portion of the project. C&B Drilling Co., Inc., of Stuttgart, turned in the apparent low bid at $57,423, while Layne-Arkansas Co., also of Stuttgart, had a bid for $92,577. No reason was given for the drastic difference in the bids.

Other companies submitting bids for the project were: BB&B Construction Co., Inc., of Hot Springs ($1,227,957.70); Bobo and Bain Construction, Inc., of Hope ($1,302,282.34); 4M Construction Co., Inc., of Arkadelphia ($1,086,931.68); Kraus Construction Co., of Fort Smith ($1,304,685); New Dixie Piping and Equipment Co., of Bigelow ($1,260,000); John H. Parker Construction Co., of Palestine ($1,210,479.70); S&J (bid shown above); and Spurlock, Inc., of Searcy ($1,220,762).

Several of these companies had representatives present at the bid opening, held at the Gurdon City Hall. Each was given a tabulation sheet to see how their company's bids stacked up against their competitors.

Charles Summerford, project engineer, thanked all on hand for their bids, wishing all luck before they were opened.

He reminded the representatives the funding for the project was set three-and-a-half years ago, and may not be accurate with today's prices.

However, Summerford's original projected costs for the project was for $1,033,845.50 for the parent portion, with the tanks estimated cost to be $147,875 and the well drilling expected to be $51,950.

G&S Trenching's bid was actually less than the projected cost by more than $2,000.

The low bid on the tank was more than $40,000 below his projection, while the well drilling bid was more than $6,000 higher than expected.

Still, the numbers appear to be within the project's original budget.

Summerford said the low bidders will be determined, with their figures double-checked. Should the numbers prove to be accurate, he will check the contractors themselves to see what kind of reputation they have as to reliability and quality.

The apparent low bidders will also be checked and approved by the lending and federal agencies involved, getting their approval before then being recommended to the Gurdon City Council.