Included in the Airport's Capital Improvement Program is the Construction of a New Storage Building for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  The BLM currently leases two hangars in the Airport Business Park that were once part of the Air Force Fighter Interceptor Base built in 1965.  These old hangars are utilized as storage for the BLM's wild lands firefighting cache operation.  These hangars are scheduled to be removed early next year as part of the north side aircraft parking area expansion project.  In order to remove these hangars, the fire cache supplies stored in the hangars must first be relocated.  To accommodate this relocation of the fire cache supplies, the Airport's plan was to build an 8,000 square foot metal storage building located outside of the Airport's Secured Area, adjacent to other BLM storage facilities, and work with the BLM on a new lease agreement for the use of this facility.  This project was advertised in the Yellowstone County News on April 6, 13, 20, and 27, and was posted on the City and the Airport's Websites. On May 1, 2018, the following bids were received:

 

CONTRACTOR	BUILDING & SITE WORK	ALTERNATE 1
Swank Construction	$681,555.75	$32,000.00
Yellowstone Basin	$760,220.12	$41,638.00
Diamond	$836,710.00	$35,150.00
EEC Inc.	$858,763.82	$25,650.00
Fisher Construction	$774,800.00	$37,500.00

At the May 14, 2018 City Council meeting, staff recommended postponing the contract award for this project until the May 29, 2018 City Council meeting to allow staff more time to evaluate the bid proposals received.  At the May 29, 2018 City Council meeting, staff once again recommended postponing the decision on the project until the June 11, 2018 City Council meeting to provide staff additional time to negotiate a lease with the BLM.  Because the price of the project came in higher than originally anticipated, the BLM is not in a position to meet the financial requirements proposed by the Airport for the project and other alternatives will need to be explored.  Subsequently, staff recommends that all bids be rejected due to the inability for a financial program to be implemented with the BLM that would ensure the City was not put in a financial hardship.

City Council may:

• Approve staff recommendation to reject all bids for the Construction of a New Storage Building for the BLM; or
• Decline the staff recommendation and direct staff on how to proceed.

With the rejection of the bids, there will be no financial impact at this time.