Six bids for the second phase of a capital improvement project in the North Tonawanda City School District were approved Tuesday, but one contract that included a seemingly too-good-to-be-true price tag generated a lengthy discussion among board members.

Weydman Electric was awarded the electrical construction contract for its overall low bid of $5,545,750. However, CIR Electric offered a base bid of $5,370,000 that was about $30,000 lower than Weydman’s base bid. Weydman earned the contract because of its low bids on alternate items, particularly its $18,500 quote for data infrastructure, such as wireless routers and switches.

Board member Christine Porto asked if that figure was a typo. Other board members echoed Porto’s concern, noting that most bids were in the $180,000 range, and questioned if the district would later pay for hidden costs.

Representatives from Kideney Architects, the company overseeing the project, assured the board that while changes in costs are likely with any contract, they wouldn’t recommend a change order nearly ten times higher than the original bid.

“There will be change orders, there always are,” said Ray Bednarski, Kideney vice president. “We couldn’t recommend you pay $160,000 more just in case there were a change order.”

Kideney officials also noted that Weydman has not asked to be released from its quote.

Superintendent Vincent Vecchiarella noted Titan Wrecking, one of the bidders on the asbestos contract, asked to be let out of their bid when they realized they couldn’t meet their stated $637,700 amount. That bid was ultimately awarded to CJ Drew at a cost of $1,050,000.

Bednarski said that the alternates were added to requests for bids to give the district a chance to stretch its money and obtain features that didn’t make the cut on the capital project. He explained a company might offer a bid on an alternate that wasn’t the lowest bid for that item, but combined with its base bid, the company offered more for less than another firm’s base and alternate price.

“It’s the nature of competitive bidding,” said Bednarski. “In this case you’re getting a windfall from this bidder.”

Asking for base and alternate project bids for this phase allowed the district to receive an additional $3 million in alternate projects.

Overall, the six contracts for general trades, asbestos abatement, site work, plumbing, HVAC construction and electrical are worth $25,748,752.

After voicing their reasons to avoid future unnecessary costs, the board addressed a matter that appears to justify their concerns.

The board approved spending $20,090 to repair collapsible bleachers in the high school’s blue gym.

“Didn’t we already fix these?” Porto asked.

Sagging bleachers in the district’s old, new and blue gyms were replaced last summer at a cost of nearly $290,000 after they broke down from improper use. At an August 2009 board meeting it was announced that the district would train a select few people to operate the bleachers to prevent a recurrence.

It happened anyway.

District officials said the training was scheduled, but at least one individual couldn’t attend the training and never rescheduled. That person did operate the bleachers improperly and damaged them.

“It’s our understanding the individual who was operating it wasn’t trained,” Board President Jeffrey Glatz said. “That person is no longer with the district, but because of an unrelated matter.”

Bleachers were also included in the district’s last capital campaign, which occurred in the early 1990s.

“I’m not going to approve another change order (after this),” Porto said, indicating that the next time the bleachers need repairing “it’s going to come out of someone’s paycheck.”

Contact night city editor John Hopkins at 693-1000, ext. 150.