Speedy demolition of Tower Building to cost $35,000 extra

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The Davison County Commission awarded a bid Tuesday to demolish the Tower Building, pictured here. The structure, located along Miller Avenue, was formerly part of the old Methodist Hospital. (Laura Wehde/Republic Photo)

Talk about it

The Tower Building will be down by Halloween, but it will cost the county an extra $35,000.

That was the result of a 3-2 vote Tuesday in which the Davison County commissioners, during their regular weekly meeting at the courthouse in Mitchell, awarded a $550,581 demolition contract to Soukup Construction, of Sioux Falls.

“Yes, I know it’s $35,000 more and that’s unfortunate,” said Commission Chairman David Weitala, referring to a another bid that was $35,581 less.

But Weitala also expressed the belief that the extra money is being well spent to rid the county of a long-term headache and to clear the deck for a new county building at the site along Miller Avenue.

The award avoids a potential lawsuit, said Weitala, that might have resulted from irregularities that followed the submission of a $515,000 low bid from VanderPol Dragline, of Mitchell.

The commissioners opened the demolition bids on June 1 and set June 15 as the award date.

With the goal of getting lower bids for off-season work, the county gave bidders the option of two scenarios: one for an immediate project start and a fall completion date, and the second for a fall start and winter completion date.

VanderPol Dragline’s $515,000 fall/winter bid was the lowest of the submitted bids.

On June 10, Bryan VanderPol appeared before the commissioners and said his crews could begin the project this summer and finish up around Nov. 24 for the same $515,000 price.

Deputy State’s Attorney Jim Taylor said last week that the commissioners’ communication with VanderPol could be construed as an attempt to influence the bid award process and advised the commissioners to either ignore VanderPol’s comments or to give other bidders the same opportunity to comment. The commissioners chose the latter.

On Tuesday, Auditor Susan Kiepke, relaying information from Soukup Construction principal Jim Soukup, said Soukup “wasn’t pleased with the submission of a proposed schedule change by VanderPol and that it might possibly be considered a change of bids … he felt the proposed schedule (submitted by VanderPol) was turned in to assure they would get the bid.”

Soukup, Kiepke said, felt that any schedule change should have been negotiated after the bidding process concluded.

Bidders Schoenfelder Construction, of Mitchell, and Veit Construction, of Rogers, Minn., submitted no comments.

The bid award process was delayed for nearly an hour Tuesday to get Taylor’s opinion on the responses.

He recommended that the commissioners either accept VanderPol’s $515,000 bid and maintain the original fall-winter construction date, or accept the next lowest bid. Soukup’s $550,581 bid was the same for either bidding scenario.

Commissioners Jerry Fischer, Gerald Weiss and David Weitala voted to accept Soukup’s bid. Commissioners John Claggett and Denny Kiner voted against it.

“My question is, why do we want to spend $35,000 more?” Kiner said. The county has waited this long, he added later, referring to the commissioners’ decision a year ago to demolish the Tower Building. Waiting a few extra months more would make little difference if it would save taxpayer money, he said.

The county bought the Tower Building, which was formerly part of the old Methodist Hospital, back in 1993 for $425,000. In the years since, the building was sparsely used and expensive to maintain.

While a $157,500 community development block grant will be used to pay for part of the demolition project, the commissioners have not yet indicated what additional funds will be used to pay the balance of the amount due.

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