What was intended to be a quick update on the new Independence Township Hall turned into another debate.
Trustee David Lohmeier asked why no bids were brought to the Township Board.
“I don’t find anywhere in the minutes where the bid policy was waived,” Lohmeier said at the Jan. 6 meeting. “I believe it should still be used. It serves an important purpose.?
Trustee Neil Wallace agreed.
‘When you’re spending that much money, the board ought to be reviewing it,” Wallace said. “The spending of money is the single most important thing we do.”
Wagner said the bid process was waived because Building Director Dave Belcher is the general contractor.
“Belcher had $800,000 allotted to him to get the job done. He was to hire contractors and manage the job as a construction manager, so basically the bid was awarded to him,? said Wagner. ‘This was discussed by our previous board, by our township attorney and we’ve seen no problem whatsoever with that process.?
Clerk Shelagh VanderVeen, who worked for a construction company years ago, said that’s how the general contractor position has been handled.
However, Trustee Larry Rosso, who served on the previous board, saw it differently.
‘We made Belcher the general contractor and then we let him hire the subcontractors and do whatever work they wanted to do under that agreement,? said Rosso. ‘Generally, I’ve thought that didn’t necessarily waive the bid process for capital equipment. I thought we (the board) were to approve bids on the capital equipment that was over $10,000.?
Township attorney Steve Joppich is looking into the situation.
‘If, in fact, the board did not take the right action proactively or specifically give that dispensation (that the bid was waived) then we should address it as a board. It should be put to a vote,? said Lohmeier. ‘If I observed something that I didn’t think was appropriate and I didn’t raise the issue, then I’m not being responsible in my duties.?
Wagner and VanderVeen said they were disappointed in how the update went at the meeting.
“It didn’t turn out to be an update like we thought it would be ? it turned into questions and bringing up things that had already been done, already been acted upon and transpired,? said VanderVeen. ‘To bring it up at this point, I don’t see any useful purpose in it. We have purchased that building, we are going forward with it and to second guess what we did doesn’t serve any good purpose. If anything, it was rather divisive.?
So far, $142,887 has been spent from the $800,000 budget.
‘It appears we are going to come in once