By: Ryan Quinn, Education Reporter | Posted: Feb. 15, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
The Kanawha County Board of Education approved Thursday evening paying about $108,000 to re-roof Pinch Elementary, heard schools were getting 400 more carbon monoxide detectors and proposed a policy change that would improve chances for “resident vendor” companies to win county public school system contracts over non-resident vendors.
The proposed policy change would add this language: “Resident vendors of the State of West Virginia shall be offered the opportunity to claim a resident vendor preference up to 5 percent of the lowest bid submitted by a qualified bidder in the awarding of a bid for the purchase of commodities and printing.”
School system Communications Director Briana Warner said that would mean a resident bidder could submit a bid up to 5 percent more expensive than the lowest bidder and still be awarded the contract.
Kanawha schools Superintendent Ron Duerring said the proposed policy change should be posted online Friday for a public comment period.
The proposed change would also add this:
“A qualifying resident vendor may include but not be limited to one who maintains the following business activities or has paid the indicated taxes within the State:
- Is authorized to transact business within the State by appropriate authorities;
- Maintains an office in the State;
- Has actually paid real or personal property taxes on real estate or equipment used in the regular course of business related to the commodities or services offered;
- Has paid business taxes to the State and to municipalities; and
- When selling tangible personal property, has available for delivery a stock of materials of the type being offered and of a reasonable quantity.”
Board member Ryan White, who has advocated for a local vendor preference in the past, said he’d like the policy to require a vendor to meet all five criteria to be considered a resident vendor, instead of just one. Duerring said he thinks the policy will be posted for public comment as is, but said changes can be made based on comments from board members and the public.
Charles Wilson, the school system’s executive director of facilities planning, said the winner of the Pinch re-roofing bid, Design Roofing, is headquartered in Hurricane. He said he didn’t immediately know where the next-lowest bidder, Fairfax Roofing (bid $116,000) is headquartered.
He said Harris Roofing (bid $134,000) and Tri State Roofing (bid $146,000) are both headquartered in Charleston, while the last bidder, Boggs Roofing (bid $138,000) is based in Huntington.
“It’s leaking all over,” Wilson said of the current roof, which he said is probably about 25-30 years old. He said he hopes the project will be finished by the end of the school year, saying “it’s just a few weeks’ worth of work.”
Warner has said the school system had no carbon monoxide detectors in any of its schools before an incident at Kanawha’s Montrose Elementary.
South Charleston Fire Chief Virgil White said his firefighters detected 40 parts per million of carbon monoxide in the Montrose gymnasium/cafeteria on Nov. 15, and 60 parts per million there on Dec. 11. Warner said the Montrose heating unit suspected of releasing carbon monoxide had been repaired and turned back on as of Dec. 14.
On Jan. 22, Warner announced that the school system had bought 500 carbon monoxide alarms that were to be installed in the county’s 67 school facilities: 42 elementary schools, 13 middle schools, eight high schools, one alternative school, and the three career and technical schools. She said alarms might be installed in other school system facilities, as well.
She said all 500 cost $14,000, combined, and that they last a decade.
On Thursday, she said 450 of the alarms have already been installed, yet the school system still needs to install them in five of its elementary schools and all of its middle and high schools. She said the total cost is now $28,000, and some of the remaining elementary schools should’ve been getting their installations Thursday.
“I think as they got in there, obviously, there’s going to be some judgment calls and you want to put more in as an abundance of caution near those gas heat sources, near preschool rooms, near kitchens and things like that,” she said. “So as they started installing they ended up going through them more quickly than they had anticipated.”
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.
