Whitehall council postpones review of library project bids

The Whitehall city council postponed the approval of a bid for the library project after learning that some of the companies who submitted bids did not have the same understanding of the process.

The council met last Wednesday in a special meeting to review the bids and approve one of them. Library director Amanda Hegge told the council she was advised by city engineering firm Short Elliot Hendrickson that the two lowest bidders had omitted the soil remediation work required to proceed with construction of the library. The lowest of the bids being from Rocket Construction out of Eau Claire and the other from R.J. Jurowski in Whitehall. The third lowest bidder, Wieser Brothers General Contractor, included the cost of the soil work in their base bid. 

“That’s not accurate information,” Ben Sylla, RJ Jurowski vice president, said. 

RJ Jurowski project manager Kevin Lisowski recommended to the council that they approve Rocket Construction’s bid. He stated if Rocket or Jurowski had made a mistake on the bid form that’s their problem, but that the pricing represented what was on the drawing. 

Whitehall Mayor Jeff Hauser shared his concern with the absence of SEH representation and scheduled a follow-up special meeting for Tuesday of this week.