At their Regular Meeting on June 22nd, the Board of Education awarded the contract for constructing
the building addition on the Trevor site to J.P. Cullen & Sons, Inc. Cullen, the low-bidder, was one of four firms which the Board had pre-qualified and asked to submit bids.
The final bid tabulation revealed that Cullen had submitted a proposal which was $124,800 less than the nearest competitor. Because the proposal was less than the amount the District had budgeted, the Board will be able to provide second floor classrooms which had been listed as a separate bid alternate. These rooms will be used by second grade students. “Cullen gave the best value for the taxpayers of the District and still had a high percentage of local subcontractors,” explained Board President Tom Steiner.
For Board Clerk Cole Marshall, it was a matter of fairness – “The Board set the rules and Cullen won.” Board member Sue Giovanni summed it all up: “The Board spent a great deal of time choosing a contractor for the school addition. It was not a decision we took lightly. In the end, we felt J.P. Cullen met more of our criteria, particularly hiring as many local contractors as possible and submitted a bid that fit our budget.”J.P. Cullen, with offices in Janesville and Milwaukee, has been in continuous operation since its founding in 1892 and currently employs over 600 construction and professional staff. Its annual construction volume is over $280 million, almost a quarter of which involves k-12 education projects. Cullen Vice-President Larry Rocole reported that “we are very excited to be doing this project,” as are we all.
