Commissioners re-award Community Crossings grant

After opting for local over lower when awarding the Community Crossings Matching Grant

back in May, the Washington County Commissioners received a letter from the state and held a special meeting Tuesday, June 10.

At that meeting they reversed that original decision by a vote of 2-1 with Commissioner Todd

Ewen sticking with his original decision.

The original decision in May was to awarded Temple & Temple with the $1,899,775 CCMG grant. That decision was also approved 2-1 with commissioner Tony Cardwell voting against it because C & R Construction was the lower bidder by $77,000.

At the time Cardwell said giving the contract to the higher bidder was “Gangster government.”

Commissioner Phillip Marshall and Ewen said at the May meeting they opted to go with

Temple & Temple, the higher bidder, because of how close the two bids were and the number of local people who would be affected locally.

The state apparently didn';t see it that way.

Marshall said at the June 10 meeting he was informed by the state that a Community Crossings grant had never been awarded to the higher bidder.

That's why after Cardwell made the motion to rescind the original bid awarding Marshall

seconded it. Those two voted for it with Ewen opposing.

Cardwell then made a motion to award the contract to C & R with Marshall seconding it. Those

two again voted in favor with Ewen opposing.

Ewen said he knows that the state awarded a higher bid for a Community Crossings grant in

Shoals and called into question the state's process.

“The Community Crossings grant has the word community in it,” Ewen said. “It's my belief and I' ve always tried to put this into practice, I stand up for my community. I stand up for the people I go to church with, my neighbors, my friends, all people, who work for this company. I have no animosity toward C & R, I really don't know them, They've never introduced themselves and I've never reached out to them. One of the issues I have is hauling the mix such a great distance is normally not a great practice. Hauling it over 30 miles can cause issues and I know a little about asphalt.

“My main point is I think the state system is flawed. They want to talk about doing what is best.

We do want bids to be fair, naturally, I just could not vote in favor of this on what I feel in principal is abandoning my friends, neighbors and community and I hope you respect my decision whether you agree with it or not.”

Highway Superintendent Rick Voyles seemed to appreciate the commissioners making things

right with the Indiana Department of Transportation.

“I am very grateful to INDOT and I think this came off as we are too good to go by their rules.”

Voyles said. “I have nothing but good things to say about them and the people at the state. They are very good to work with. We have gotten Community Crossing grants for our community seven years in a row. That has made a great difference in our rows. We have not had one hiccup. We have a very high standard and we keep our paperwork up. They got money to give out, they look at us because they know we don't screw it up. I don't want a black-eye. We want to stay on their A-list.”

Marshall said after the meeting the state is cutting funding for the CCMG next year and he

wants to make sure that while there is a smaller amount being distributed across the state, Washington County doesn't get cut out.

Cardwell said after the meeting he was glad to see the initial wrong made right and it's kind of bitter-sweet, because like Ewen he would like to have seen the local company get the contract, but the fair process is to award the low bidder.

Temple & Temple owner Ken Temple was present at the meeting and he said it was a bad deal and seeing the contract leave the county would affect a lot of local people, but he thinks the commissioners have counsel and they were advised a certain way and that's the way they went.

The commissioners met again on June 17 at 9 am. Look for information from that meeting in

upcoming issues of The Washington County Herald.