Out of the six bids submitted for the Riley County Tuttle Creek Fire Station #12 bid opening last month, two were considerably lower than the rest: Schultz Construction and Cheney Construction. County Fire Chief, Pat Collins called for references on these two bidders and shared his findings with county commissioners during their Monday meeting.
While a majority of the comments from references were positive, according to Collins, Cheney Construction got a few negative comments regarding issues that cropped up during their construction on the law enforcement center several years ago.
Ron Cheney, of Cheney Construction, was present during the meeting to defend his company. “This jail deal has gone on for over 10 years. I did everything I could to make that thing right. I ended up spending maybe $25,000 on a three million dollar project. You [commissioners]haven’t had any trouble with it since I took care of it. I’d kinda like to put this jail thing to rest because I did step up to the plate.”
Commissioner, Robert Boyd stated, “I believe in second changes”. It appeared the other commissioners agreed, as they approved unanimously to move forward with Cheney’s bid of $574,964.
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The unofficial election results were also reviewed during Monday’s meeting. An election canvassing was held to sift through the provisional ballots and make the results official. Provisional ballots are often submitted when people are at the wrong polling location or are not registered to vote.
Election staff recommended 20 of the provisional ballots be counted. The commission did approve these results.
