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Biomass project: Local company awarded bids in Darby
A local company had the winning bids for a biomass heating system at a Darby School Board meeting on Monday, a school official said.
By BUDDY SMITH Ravalli Republic Staff Reporter
Bids were opened that afternoon and presented to the school board later that night, said Superintendent Jack Eggensperger.
He said Vintage Construction of Darby entered the lowest bid for the work at $582,910, and that bid includes five aspects of the planned construction, from building the facility to housing the boiler to paving work, some of which the superintendent said would probably be sub-contracted.
Work on the heating system to be fueled by wastewood and small trees from forest thinning should began in April.
"And we’re hoping to be online by like the end of October when the heating season starts," Eggensperger said.
It will be the first in Montana backed by the U.S. Forest Service’s National Fire Plan grant, the Bitter Root RC&D and congressional funding.
Eggensperger said Vintage Construction’s total bid award included the base bid and some alternate bids. The main construction essentially involves building a facility on campus that will house biomass boiler and chip storage unit and connecting the boiler plant to the high school and the junior high-elementary wing.
Two Missoula companies had also bid on the work, Eggensperger said.
He said the project was originally designed in two phases and was bid that way, but officials say there appears to be enough funding to do both phases at once.
The wood-chip boiler will be built and shipped here by a Michigan company, which bid $230,631 to do that job, the superintendent said.
"And then they’re going to re-bid the emissions stack because only one of the three (bidders) was able to get a bid on it from a subcontractor," Eggensperger said.
Vintage Construction also had winning bids for paving access so trucks can drive up to the facility and off-load wood chips, rehabilitation of heater ventilation units in the gymnasium, and work that would tie the kitchen area hot water system into the biomass facility, according to Eggensperger.
Total costs of construction and installation should come in close to the projected $845,594 cost, Eggensperger said.
"If you add in the boiler and then when they re-bid the stack, that will make it come pretty close to what they projected," he said.
Eggensperger said bids for other related work came in too high and will be re-evaluated after discussions with the bidders. He said school officials were pleased a local company entered the lowest and winning bid for construction work.
He said Vintage Construction’s winning bid included some donated work, which will also count toward the school’s funding match for the project. Darby’s town council has agreed to waive the hookup fee to the water system, Eggensperger said, "and that was a major portion of the match."
Students will also play a role as part of the match by monitoring the biomass system.
"One of the things that was originally in the deal is, we’re the pilot project and if other schools or counties are interested in this, we will go and talk about it," Eggensperger said.
Reporter Buddy Smith can be reached at 363-3300 or [email protected].
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