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LCPA step closer to park

By Estuardo Garcia - | Dec 10, 2008

The Leavenworth County Port Authority once again has an engineering firm to provide preliminary engineering work to help determine the best location for a new county industrial park.

But how much the LCPA will pay still needs to be negotiated.

After a bit of confusion as to what the LCPA had voted for during their Oct. 29 meeting, the board once again voted in favor of Trans System for a $131,840 bid. The confusion came with how the board was going to handle the engineering on a 237-acre tract in Tonganoxie.

Trans Systems had a bid price of $63,620 for the tract as part of its overall bid. BG Consultants, the city’s engineering firm, bid a price of $43,134 for that tract, but did not bid on any of the other tracts.

Steve Jack, LCDC director, read the original request for proposal, which did not specifically say what each firm had bid on all of the tracts, which meant BG Consultants’ bid was valid.

The board wanted to go with one company so it could have the same information for all of the tracts when making its site selection. This meant that BG Consultants’ bid was out of the running, but it meant that Tonganoxie would have to pay an additional $10,243 to go with Trans Systems.

“Trans Systems is $2,000 higher than the low bid for Basehor; they are $3,000 higher than the low bid for Lansing, they are $20,000 for the low bid for Tonganoxie,” said Mike Yanez, Tonganoxie city administrator. “That’s a hell of a gap.”

The organization planned on splitting the cost to engineering each tract of land with the city in which the tract was located.

The organization voted to allow the land search subcommittee to negotiate what each entity will pay for the engineering costs.