Mike Becker of Mike Becker Construction of La Grande admits to being “disappointed” in the awarding of the bid for the construction of the new Wallowa County Public Safety Building.

Becker said he invested an estimated $5,000 in architectural fees and time spent by his own employees and various subcontractors to put together a design build proposal on the project. He submitted the low bid, and then did not get awarded the contract.

The Wallowa County Public Safety Committee – consisting of Ben Boswell, Fred Steen, John Lawrence, Michele Young and Wes Kilgore – awarded the bid to WC Construction of Elgin.

Becker Construction bid $844,000 on the project and WC Construction $849,220.

Becker said he thought it was the first time in 30 years in the construction business that he had submitted a low bid that was not accepted. “We were 99 percent sure we would be doing the job, then we got bitten by the 1 percent,” Becker said.

Becker went out of his way not to put a negative spin on the decision, saying that he was not upset, just disappointed.

Boswell said the bid decision was based on a many-faceted scoring system, and that the scoring between the final two contractors in the process was very close. “We were convinced that either contractor would do a good job,” Boswell said.

Boswell added that the decision was based on a 100 percent scoring system and that 50 percent of the grade was determined by the construction components, or elements of the design build proposal.

Other contributing factors, Boswell said, were contractor flexibility, the bid price, scheduling of the work, and each contractor’s team of architects and project managers.

The final two contractors, from among seven originally interested in the project according to Becker, presented their proposals in writing and were interviewed before the decision was made.

Becker thought one contributing factor to the decision could have been that WC Construction has some employees from Wallowa County while Becker Construction does not.

“I wasn’t too happy the way things turned out,” said Becker, “But I think they were probably doing their job.”

Steen, the administrator for the $800,000 Federal Office of Justice Programs/Department of Justice grant funding much of the new 7,400 square foot building, has said that he anticipates some site preparation work being completed before winter sets in and completion of the project before fall 2005.