Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- Susitna Valley Junior/Senior High School students will meet in portable classrooms in fall 2009, not in the new school they hoped to have by then.

The project stalled Tuesday when the Matanuska-Susitna Borough canceled construction bids based on what borough manager John Duffy called an "apparent violation of the bid process."

The borough Assembly pulled its plans to award a $17.85 million contract Tuesday to Wasilla contractor Collins Construction.

The Su Valley school was nearly shut down in 2005 because engineers declared its roof and some walls unsafe to bear snow loads. A community outcry and commitment to shovel roofs regularly kept the school open until a $5.5 million repair project started in 2007. But a fire in June 2007 halted renovations.

Students have since been meeting in portable classrooms in the parking lot of the nearby Upper Susitna Senior Center near Trapper Creek.

Duffy said Wednesday he hopes to rebid quickly enough to get the school's foundation poured before freeze-up and open the school by November or December 2009.

Duffy said the reason for the delay is an issue raised in e-mails from Collins Construction co-owner Greg Waisanen to borough purchasing officer Russ Krafft.

In a June 20 e-mail, Waisanen told Krafft that he and another contractor had talked about their project bids.

"Mr. Roger Hickel gave me a call to find out what my bid was because he was wanting to bid another job if he did not get Su Valley. We told each other our bid (numbers) on Monday the 9th with the verbal agreement low (number) won and the other would just go away without whining or protest," Waisanen wrote.

Hickel, president of Roger Hickel Contracting Inc., said he exchanged figures but didn't promise to forgo a bid protest. In fact, he filed a protest the day before Waisanen wrote to Krafft.

That the borough canceled the bids as a result is absurd, he said.

"They received the bids and the bids were closed. No further information could be submitted by any of the bidders, legally," Hickel said.

"Who's been wronged? I'm showing my competitor a courtesy so he can bid another job," Waisanen asked.

Duffy said borough bidding procedures prohibit contractors from discussing their proposals until the sealed bids are open.

"We have $18 million or so of public monies to be spent and we want to be sure the process we use to get to the award was without challenge," Duffy said.

Hickel said the borough's bid cancellation lets it sidestep his protest that the borough failed to score the proposals fairly.

Waisanen was the apparent winner by a nose. His bid was just $53,000 lower than Hickel's. Their evaluation scores were within a single point, out of 100 possible points.

Hickel wanted the bids rescored.

Duffy said a second e-mail from Waisanen to Krafft threatening a formal protest if Hickel's protest was upheld solidified the borough decision to toss the bids out.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 907-352-6709.

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