The Crawford County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday accepted bids from three local companies for furniture and appliances to outfit the new Emergency Medical Services station nearing completion north of Frontenac.
Sheriff Sandy Horton and EMS Director Joey Adams presented the bids to commissioners with recommendations for acceptance. The cost of outfitting the station totaled $33,745.64.
“There are some good prices here,” Horton said. “I'm real happy with the competitiveness of the bids.”
The county received appliance bids from Metro Builders, Sears in Pittsburg, Beitzinger's Hardware in Pittsburg and Heidrick Appliance in Girard. Bids ranged from $3,637 to $3,980.42.
“All these are actually good bids,” Horton said. “We can't really complain about the brands or anything.”
Even though it wasn't the lowest, Horton and Adams recommended accepting the bid of $3,857.42 from Sears in Pittsburg, because the company is a local Crawford County business.
Two companies — Ettinger's Office Supply in Pittsburg and Echelon Interiors in Girard — submitted bids of $23,585.32 and $22,265.13 respectively for office furniture for the facility. The difference of more than $1,300 represented the disparity between the cost of training tables to be used in the facility, Horton said. Based solely on the quality of the product, he recommended accepting the bid from Ettinger's Office Supply.
“It's something we tried to do at the Sheriff's Office, the last time we bought furniture,” Horton said. “All the furniture we bought 10 years ago we're still using today. Buying better furniture saves money in the long run.”
The final item on the list was for beds and sundry items for the crew quarters at the station. Bids were received from Westco, Pittsburg Interiors and Moore's Furniture, all of Pittsburg. Horton and Adams recommended accepting the low bid of $6,302.90 from Westco.
On a motion by Commissioner Tom Moody, seconded by Commissioner Ralph McGeorge, the Board accepted all three recommendations. Discussion then turned to how the county was going to pay for its purchases.
The plan initially was to use a portion of the $800,000 the county borrowed for the overall project to purchase the furniture and appliances. Cost savings realized through the course of the project had been anticipated to leave a surplus that could be used to finance the costs.
But recent increases in the asphalt needed for the parking lot at the station quickly consumed any anticipated windfall. And not finishing the asphalt parking lot wouldn't be an option, Horton said.
“Our options would be do nothing (with the parking lot) or add to that $800,000 note, which the banks said we could do,” Horton said. “But I would recommend against that.
“If we can do the parking lot, I think we have to. Otherwise, we're going to have a brand new building, with brand new floors, tracking in from a gravel parking lot.”
Horton and Adams said it should be possible to buy the furniture out-right from the existing budget. The county paid off its last ambulance four months ago, freeing up the $2,500 a month that was budgeted there. Also, payments on the new EMS building didn't start until six months ago, but had been budgeted for at the beginning of the year, at $6,000 per month. And the county probably won't take delivery and have to start making payments on new ambulances until at least March, which means more funds in the budget available to buy the furniture.
“If you've got it in this year's budget, I say pay for it,” Commission Chairman Bob Kmiec said.
“I agree,” Commissioner Ralph McGeorge said. “We don't know what coming down the road.”