District hires general contractor

The Three Forks School Board voted last week to approve the recommendation of the General Contract/Contract Manager Committee to hire Langlas and Associates as the general contractor for the recently passed bonds.

The two other companies that had submitted request for proposals (RFP's) were Dick Anderson Construction and Jackson Contractor Group.

Prior to the vote, Superintendent Jeff Elliott told board members how impressed he was with all the contractors and said they are very fortunate to be in a state that has such good people available for the project.

"They were very impressive. I felt very good about the three," he said.

The third-year Superintendent also broke down the criteria for scoring for the final three candidates that included project approach, pricing, and interviews for a total score of 300.

He said they have spent a lot of time with Jackson working with the school on the two bond attempts and they did win the interview, but it all came down to cost. He added the hard thing as a Superintendent with recent cuts is, they really have to value the dollar.

Board member Sheri Brown was the lone negative vote on the recommendation, and she expressed concern with the choice of Langlas. Brown said she was completely surprised at this stage that they made a decision based on $170,000 -- .7 percent of the total project. Brown added they have spent three years working with Jackson on bond-related issues.

"You can't recreate that relationship," she said.

Board Chair Lori Sayers said it wasn't an easy decision, but it was an amazing process being on the committee and was unbiased, which she added is exactly what need to

Board member Robert Buchholz said the reality is that they have an objective scoring system and Jackson lost, adding they had three years to get the inside track and should have blown away the committee.

Brown said the district will once again be starting from scratch which will lead to sleepless nights.