District 87 approves $3.2 million HVAC project bid

Posted on December 13, 2017
District 87 approved a multi-million dollar bid to perform HVAC upgrades at several of the district’s elementary schools. (WJBC File Photo)

By Patrick Baron

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington’s District 87 approved a bid of $3.2 million from A&R Mechanical in Urbana to upgrade heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls at Irving, Oakland, and Washington elementary schools.

District 87 Superintendent Barry Reilly said for whatever reasons, the district’s initial bid notice had lackluster results.

“We only had one bid,” Reilly said. “It’s difficult for me to say why that was, it could be timing of it or whatever the case may be, but that bid came in higher than we had budgeted for.”

Reilly said following the dismal response to the notice, the district scrapped it and create an entirely new bid notice.

“We pulled it – we didn’t even have the board vote on that – and we went back to the drawing board and had a new bid processed and put in place where we had more contractors out there to bid on it,” Reilly explained. “That got the price down to where it was below what we’re estimating for it.”

Work on the project is expected to take place next summer.

Patrick Baron can be reached at [email protected].

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