Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1993 TAG: 9304070324
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HOTEL BID PROPOSAL QUESTIONED
Virginia Tech and Roanoke officials announced a plan Tuesday that is supposed to ensure that local, small and minority-owned businesses are given an equal opportunity to compete for work on the Hotel Roanoke project.But the first two contracts on the project, totaling about $2.3 million for asbestos removal and demolition, are expected to be awarded to an out-of-town company.
David Van Blaricom, construction manager for Faison Associates, said the contracts will be awarded to Falcon Inc. of Laurel, Md., or Insulated Services Inc. of Richmond.
Van Blaricom said he has made a recommendation to Virginia Tech and Renew Roanoke on the bids, but would not say which company would get the work. The contracts have not been signed, he said.
Van Blaricom said the bids by the out-of-town companies were about $700,000 lower than those by local companies.
But a Roanoke asbestos company said it was never told how its bid ranked with the others. "We have not been told anything or who the low bidder was," said Ed Thompson of LCM Corp.
"They contacted us and asked if we could bring the price down [and] we did. But I didn't hear any more from them," Thompson said.
Van Blaricom's and Thompson's remarks came after a news conference called by city and Tech officials to release the plan for making certain that local, small and minority-owned businesses compete on an equal footing with other bidders.
City Manager Bob Herbert said the asbestos and demolition work needs to begin soon so the $42 million project can stay on schedule. He said that's the reason that bids were taken before the plan for seeking out local and minority businesses was prepared.
Major contracts for the hotel and conference center won't be awarded for several months, Herbert said, so there will be time to implement a procedure to make sure that small and minority businesses get equal consideration.
Herbert said two people will head up the effort to recruit small and minority businesses:
Alvin Nash will take a six-month leave of absence from his post as deputy director of Total Action Against Poverty to work full time to identify and assist local and minority businesses that want to bid on the project.
Nash is expected to begin his temporary assignment on May 1, Herbert said. Nash will develop a process to make local and minority firms aware of the project and the steps to qualify as bidders.
Ron Leeper, director of small and minority contracting for F.N. Thompson, Charlotte, N.C., also has been hired by Renew Roanoke, through the Hotel Roanoke partnership, to help with the small and minority business plan.
F.N. Thompson and J.M. Turner and Co. are the two contractors on the hotel project.
Ray Smoot, vice president for business affairs and treasurer for Virginia Tech, said F.N. Thompson has a very successful small and minority business program that can be beneficial for the project.