Less than two months after the Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools board awarded a contract to replace the HVAC system at Rawls Byrd Elementary School, members revised the plan to work with another company on the project.
The board initially awarded the contract to Bayside Contracting at its March 18 meeting, but Bayside has since defaulted on the agreement. School board members voted unanimously at a work session Tuesday night to issue a new contract to the next lowest bidder, Comfort Systems of Virginia.
“If you’re having a moment of déjà vu, it’s OK,” Superintendent Steven Constantino said.
Bayside was planning to replace the HVAC system with a like model for $119,999, while Comfort Systems’ bid is for $130,800. Both fall below the $200,000 budgeted in the Capital Improvements Program, which outlines high-dollar spending for construction projects.
Marcellus Snipes, WJCC’s senior director of operations, said he found out a couple of weeks ago Bayside would be defaulting on the project.
Since work was not set to start until June, and the school board acted quickly to select a new contractor, he said the task should be completed on schedule and by the start of the next school year. Monday’s vote will allow time for Comfort Systems to order supplies and line up any subcontractors needed to complete the work.
As a contractor, Bayside was bonded through a surety company, which ensures a contract is completed even if a vendor defaults. Snipes said the surety company and WJCC attorneys are working with Comfort Systems now to make sure the process goes smoothly.
Joe Fuentes (Powhatan) asked whether a system could be put into place to rate vendors based on past histories of responsiveness and quality to ensure the right choice is made for expensive projects.
“What happens a lot of times is that the lowest bidder, you’re kind of forced into picking,” he said.
Snipes said WJCC does have project evaluation criteria in place and has worked with Bayside in the past. He said there were no red flags previously to indicate there were issues ahead for this contract, nor has any other contractor defaulted with WJCC in the past.
Bayside previously completed phase one of the Lafayette High School’s HVAC system work, and could now default on phase two. It will be more complicated to find a new contractor for that project than for the Rawls Byrd job, as no contract had been signed nor had money changed hands for the Rawls Byrd project, Snipes said.
Comfort Systems is a Chesapeake company that has completed HVAC projects at James River Elementary School and the central office.
