By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A lot of infrastructure goes into making a county run in 2023. With Barton County staff moving to two buildings during the upcoming renovation project, Information Technology Director Derreck Hollingshead told the commission it was vital to get some of that infrastructure work going to stay on schedule. Commission Chair Shawn Hutchinson helped expedite the process, and at Wednesday's meeting, the commission voted 4-0 to approve a bid from Nex-Tech for $27,474.96.
"I said, let's get this on the agenda, and I'll take the heat for it if there's any pushback from the commission," Hutchinson said. "It's my fault it's here before study session, and you guys are welcome to beat me up over it, but I think it makes sense to get this moving."
The rest of the commission agreed that having a study session a week out, then putting the work out for bid for two weeks would take too long. Hollingshead said the bid process was shortened to a week, and he received six bids.
"There are IT things we need to get our temporary facilities in place: cabling, switches, wireless access points, some cameras, and things like that," he said. "We normally go out for bid for two weeks. We only went out for bid for one week. These items are pretty basic items so we felt like we could cut that timeline down. That allowed us to get to agenda today."
A California company came in with the low bid, and Nex-Tech had the low local bid. Nex-Tech will also be providing phone and fax service to the leased county buildings for the renovation project, and Hollingshead said he trusts them.
"They've communicated to me they can get the product here in a timely manner," he said. "The low bid was a company out of California that I don't have any connections with. I don't know that I trust them in a timely event."
In February, the commission approved the $4.2 million renovation to the Barton County Courthouse. Staff is expected to begin the move to properties at 1500 Kansas Avenue and 1709 Main Street in Great Bend in June.