MUSCATINE, Iowa — The Muscatine County Supervisors decided Monday to reopen the bidding process on a telecommunications system for the new Iowa Department of Human Services office in Muscatine.

During a Monday night Supervisors’ meeting, Bob Simmering, president of  VSP Engineering and Surveying of Muscatine, who has been contracted by the County to manage the project, said only one bid had been submitted to the telecommunications system.

Mary Beth Sanchez of J and S Electronics Business Systems in Burlington said her company submitted that bid at approximately $25,000.

Simmering said that during the pre-bid meeting for the remodeling project, the decision was made to include only the wiring for the telecommunications system in the general contractor’s bid because he did not have all the final specifications for the system.

There was no advertising or solicitations for the bid apart from the notice to the general contractors, which is different from the County’s standard bidding procedure, said Simmering.

Simmering suggested the Supervisors reject the lone bid and provide an opportunity to submit competitive bids.

“The procedure wasn’t done right, unfortunately,” said Simmering. “Some corrective action needs to be taken.”

Board members present unanimously agreed to the re-bid. Supervisor Wayne Shoultz was not at the meeting.

Sanchez, who was at the Monday night meeting, told the supervisors she is concerned about the re-bidding process because her company publicly bid for the contract, which now gives other companies an advantage in bidding against her.

Sanchez said she called the Muscatine County Courthouse last week to ask if the supervisors would be looking at J & S’s bid, and learned that there was going to be some discussion about the bidding process.

Sanchez said Electronics Business Systems will put in another bid.

“The other companies know what my bid is and I have to do what I have to do to still win it,” said Sanchez. “It doesn’t seem very fair.”

Simmering said he now has specifications for the hardware for the telecommunications system which may impact the amount of any future bids and level the playing field for J & S.

The new Department of Human Services offices will be located at the former Muscatine County residential care facility at 1906 Houser St., replacing the current facility at 120 E. Third St.

On June 15, the Supervisors agreed to award a contract to renovate the building to Wolfe Contracting of Muscatine for $187,424.

The project will take approximately 10 weeks to complete, said Simmering.

An early moving day

The Board also heard another report about the current residential care facility from the Muscatine County Community Services Case Management Department.

Kathie Anderson-Noel, the case management coordinator, said the seven people who had been living at the facility moved into community-based settings at the end of May.

“This is a good mile-stone for us,” said Anderson-Noel.

All seven former residents live in other  settings where they receive the level of care necessary for their individual needs, said Anderson-Noel.

The deadline for the move had been July 1, said Anderson-Noel, but the residents, their families and the ResCare company staff that oversaw the care facility cooperated to make the move sooner.

Mike Johannsen, the central point of coordination for Community Services, said that same kind of cooperation has kept the budget for his department on target for this year, despite a sluggish economy.

“The staff, consumers, providers and everybody else is pulling together to meet goals,” said Johannsen. “It’s been a real positive effort.”

Johannsen said the balanced budget will follow the department into fiscal year 2010, which he hopes will be another good year budget wise.