Sealed bids were opened on three county projects at the Thursday, December 9 bid opening.

The first, an annual contract for guardrail installation, maintenance, and repair on behalf of the Cobb Department of Transportation had one bidder: Gracie Gray Contractors, a Canton-based firm.

The bid amount on that project was not announced.

Stephanie Brice, the Deputy Director of Cobb’s purchasing department, said that the guardrail bid “has multiple prices, (and) we’ll be recognizing vendors only.”

The Courier emailed the county to ask what “recognizing vendors only” meant, and why the bid amount was not announced during the opening.

Brice responded via email.

“We do not announce pricing (whether there is one bidder or ten bidders), because it would be a laundry list of prices to read and would take forever,” she said. “If there are only a few prices, we generally read them but not for pages and pages (this bid form had 4 pages).”

The second project was the Laceola Woods Water Main Replacement, and the bids were as follows:

The third project considered was the HVAC Modifications for new elections headquarters. Only one bid was received for this: John F. Pennebaker Co., Inc. submitted a bid for $353,974.00.

About sealed bids

A sealed bid is a request for services in excess of $50,000. Sealed bids are required by state law to be advertised for a minimum of two weeks before the opening date. In Cobb County, legal notices are published in the Marietta Daily Journal.

The Cobb County website describes the bid selection process as follows:

Bid results presented on this site are preliminary and should not be considered as a final determination of award. Invitations to Bid (ITB) are awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.

Requests for Proposals (RFP) are awarded by the County based on qualitative factors including, but not limited to, cost. Therefore, the preliminary RFP results listed below only contain the names of those companies that have submitted proposals.

Cobb County reserves the right to reject all bids/proposals, to waive informalities, to reject portions of bids/proposals, to waive technicalities and to award contracts in a manner consistent with the best interests of the County and the laws of the State of Georgia.

For more information on doing business with Cobb County follow this link.