ERIN – Due to errors in the tender process, Erin council cancelled a tender for renovation work at Erin's Centre 2000 that was previously awarded to a company at almost $3 million.
Erin council awarded a nearly $3 million contract to B.E. Construction Ltd. for renovations at the Erin Community Centre, also called the Centre 2000, at a meeting on March 9. This includes installing an emergency generator, upgrades to electrical, HVAC and refrigeration systems, roof structure replacement, a new alarm system and accessibility improvements.
At the next meeting on March 23, mayor Michael Dehn said the architects on the project, D + H Architects, had discovered errors in the analysis of the bids and he put forward a notice of motion to reconsider the earlier decision.
In a letter from the architect, found in a report going forward at a council meeting on Tuesday, it said an updated tender analysis found the lowest bidder was actually CPM Group Inc.
At a council meeting Tuesday afternoon, Loopstra Nixon lawyer Chris Lee explained there were a few items included in the base bid price that the town could opt to have completed or not. Those items ended up being added back on and counted twice when the architect was evaluating for the lowest bidder and caused B.E. Construction Ltd. to be awarded the contract under incorrect information.
With this corrected, Lee said CPM has the lowest bid by $5,000 and “under any possible configuration” of the optional items being included or not.
Staff were recommending council reconsider the past decision to award the tender, then to vote against awarding the contract to B.E. Construction Ltd. and cancel the tender altogether.
Coun. John Brennan asked about any legal implications of doing so, to which Lee replied would have to be answered in a closed session.
Brennan declined because he trusted staff would make the appropriate recommendation to protect the town from liability.
Coun. Bridget Ryan wanted to know how re-tendering would hit the town financially, noting the rising cost of construction.
Infrastructure director Nick Colucci said the town could justify awarding the tender to CPM but there were possible legal ramifications of doing so.
With re-tendering, Colucci said the document would need to be reworked and would require a quote from the architect.
“I would expect a healthy discount on what they charge us, considering this is their fault,” Brennan said.
Dehn said Brennan’s request isn’t unreasonable and worth asking but also looked at a possible upside to the situation.
“The cost of commodities and materials have come down recently, there might be an economic benefit at the end of the day,” Dehn said.
Council then unanimously approved the reconsideration of the past decision, rejecting awarding the tender and to cancel the existing tender.
