Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/332945
Only one firm was represented on June 13 when Sarasota County staff held a mandatory pre-bid conference as part of the effort by the county and Siesta Village business owners to find a new company to keep the Village's appearance in tip-top shape, The Sarasota News Leader learned this week. "And that's not good," James K. Harriott Jr., the county's chief engineer, told the News Leader on June 17. "He knows he's the only one in the pool right now." Harriott said he and his staff have been discussing the situation with the county's Procurement Department "and looking at how to rectify that." The most likely solution is to amend the advertisement for the bid with the hope more firms will show an interest. That process probably would extend the deadline for responses by a week or two, he noted. A day earlier, Mark Smith, liaison between the Siesta Key Village Maintenance Corp. (SKVMC) and the county, said in an interview that county staff had indicated it had had numerous inquiries about the contract. He, too, was puzzled to see only one person show up for the Village walk-through last week. On June 2, the county advertised the bid titled Siesta Key Village and Parking District for Property Management Services. It is the first time since the summer of 2012 that the county has sought a new company to handle the maintenance. On Aug. 21, 2012, the County Commission unan- imously awarded a contract to Championship Landscape Maintenance Professionals of Fort Myers with two automatic annual renewals. However, Village business owners and county staff both have expressed dissatisfaction with Championship's work over the past several months. The situation led Smith to request advertisement for a new bid this year. On behalf of the SKVMC — whose members own prop- erty in the Siesta Village Public Improvement District — Smith asked that a management firm be sought for the work this time, instead of another firm like Championship. The original 116-page bid document issued on June 2 provides for a three-year con- tract with two annual renewals, the same provisions included in the contract won by Championship. As stated in the bid, its purpose is for the selec- tion of a firm to provide property management for maintenance and landscaping services "in a coastal environment." That work includes pruning of coconut and other trees, brick paver repair and installation, maintenance of decorative street or pedestrian lighting, clean- ing of the gazebo at the four-way intersection and "Trash/Garbage removal." The General Specifications section also notes the firm will be responsible for "the contin- uous inspection of the irrigation systems to identify any deficiencies" and reporting them to the SKVMC's "point-of-contact." Numerous ONLY ONE FIRM HAS SHOWN INTEREST IN THE NEW SIESTA VILLAGE MAINTENANCE BID, LEAVING COUNTY STAFF TO WORK ON TWEAKING THE BID By Rachel Brown Hackney Editor Sarasota News Leader June 20, 2014 Page 62