Bid on Furniture
Kortny Hahn Staff Writer, @khahnCDT @khahnCDT
CHEBOYGAN COUNTY- Once renovations and remodeling is complete on the back building at the Cheboygan, Otsego, Presque Isle Education Service District facility, Interphase Interiors out of Traverse City will provide the furniture needed to fill it.
“We got the approval to put this bid out last month, ” said Jamie Huber, supervisor of learning services and technology at the COP-ESD. “Bids were due on May 2 and we got five total responses, which was pretty good.”
The bids were posted on the Michigan State bid site, as well as in all of the local papers around the school districts serviced by the COP-ESD.
The bids received for the furniture needed for the back building ranged anywhere from $40, 037.39 to $114, 446.
Huber said he followed up with the high bidder to make sure they were submitting the total bid price for the furniture and installation. This company had submitted two different options for the furniture, and included both into the bid price. Even with the two options being calculated out, the company was still higher than the others who had submitted bids.
The low bidder, Interphase Interiors, is a fairly local company and sells Haworth office furniture and equipment.
“Which, come to find out, is what's on the MiDeal, which is the statewide bid site, ” said Huber. “And they have the award for that, to sell Haworth, it's what the State of Michigan goes with and they've standardized their furniture to go with all Haworth.”
Huber said it is a pretty good, sound, business base for the company to be going with that manufacturer of furniture.
COP-ESD Superintendent Mary Vratanina and Huber met with the Interphase Interiors representative in Cadillac. The representative gave them a number of different spots where they could go look at the furniture that had been provided by the company to get a preview of what the COP-ESD's building may look like when it is completed. They were happy with the finished product from that standpoint.
“From there, really, now it's just a matter of what materials and colors and all of that, ” said Huber.
Vratanina, along with several other staff members will be going through and making the decisions on what colors they want for the furniture and equipment and then will convey that to Interphase Interiors.
Once the company gets the final confirmation of what exact colors the COP-ESD wants, it can install all of the furniture in three to four days.
“We were satisfied there, ” said Huber.
Originally, when the COP-ESD hired a firm to do the designs for the office furniture needed for the back building, it used a mixture of new and remanufactured products as options for substitutions. With Haworth, the substitutions are not new and used, they are all new equipment, which the COP-ESD was pleased with.
The original estimate for the furniture needed was around $53, 000, so the bid from Interphase Interiors was around $12, 000 less than the estimate.
“The other thing too with the manufacturer's warranty, they are really high up there in regards to any issues or problems, they are right on it, ” said Huber. “So that was another kind of bonus type thing with them.”
The board voted unanimously to approve awarding the bid to Interphase Interiors for the furniture.
The COP-ESD's technology operations are based out of the back building at the COP-ESD facility on Learning Lane between Indian River and Topinabee. This is where the information technologists are, as well as where the servers and other equipment are located.
Cubicles will be installed for staff members to have space to work out of when they are at the COP-ESD facility. This building is one of the older buildings on the facility, and had been divided up in the past into smaller rooms. A wall will be taken out to expand one of the rooms to put the work cubicles in. The remodel of the building will also lend to more meeting spaces for conferences and training.
