Prices soar for paving: APAC only company to bid on road work
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At the rebid, the contract was awarded to APAC-TN at a significantly higher price than the original contract awarded in November to the Hillis Group which submitted the low bid at that time. The Hillis Group, owned by Stanley Hillis, declined to submit a bid at Thursday’s mid-year bid opening, thus leaving APAC as the only bidder.
Superintendent Glenn, citing concerns about the quality of work from the Hillis Group, exercised a clause that allows the highway superintendent to call for a new bid after as little as six months.
APAC was awarded the contract at a significantly higher price essentially by default since no other contractors submitted bids for hot mix paving. The Hillis Group dropped out of the bidding citing changes in requirements.
The Hillis Group also had the low bid for the 2001-2002 paving contract, but was permitted to do only a minimal amount of paving during that contract – something that caused considerable controversy between the county’s Highway and Bridge Committee and the highway department.
The main point of contention is that in the years when paving companies other than APAC had the paving contract for the county, significantly less paving was done. That was particularly true in the case of state-aid work where none of that type of work was done in 1997-1998, when Custom Paving had the contract, and none was done in 2001-2002 when the Hillis Group had the contract.
Some commissioners feel this indicates an obvious bias by Glenn toward APAC over other local companies, and that the mid-year rebid Glenn requested was simply to give APAC another chance at the 2002-2003 paving contract. Glenn, however, has defended his actions by claiming APAC provides superior workmanship.