A pair of bids separated by less than 1% for the city’s annual summer street mill and overlay project sparked a brief debate by the Hutchinson City Council on Tuesday about granting a preference to local bidders.
Ultimately, the council awarded the $1.139 million project to the low bidder, Pearson Construction LLC of Wichita, but several council members asked that the board revisit the city’s bid policy.
Mayor Steve Garza first raised the local preference issue on the paving bid, saying he’d received a lot of phone calls about the No. 2 bidder, APAC-Kansas Shears Division, being a local company with lots of employees in Hutchinson.