TYLERTOWN — Reverse auctions might not be such a bad thing for government purchasing after all.
While Walthall County officials have complained about changes made by the Legislature to state purchasing laws and shared horror stories from other jurisdictions about delays in making purchases, supervisors may have changed their minds a little bit on Aug. 15.
With bids due to come in that day on a dump truck for District 4, purchasing clerk Larita Dunaway brought a laptop computer to the county boardroom to monitor bids as they were made online through Central Bidding.
She also helped supervisors log into the site on their mobile phones so they could see bids that way as the bids were entered.
The site opened at 10 a.m. for an initial one-hour bidding period with a $188,000 bid to sell two trucks already entered, and a little after 10, the first online bid of $88,000 was entered.
Over about the next hour and 45 minutes, board members, Dunaway and board attorney Conrad Mord noted each lower bid with glee and entertained bets on paying for lunch about how low the bids would eventually go.
The system automatically adds five minutes of bidding time when a bid is made in the final minute of the allowable time, so about eight bids were made in that fashion to extend the bidding period.
About an hour in, Mord noted the time and bidding progress.
“The price has come down about $10,000 since we’ve been here,” Mord said. “This is the most fun we’ve had in a board meeting.”
Supervisors initially speculated and bet on bids drying up at about the $75,000 mark, but the bidding smashed through that supposed floor and continued downward for another 40 to 45 minutes.
Bidding finally ended with a low submission of $68,700.
“That’s $20,000 the price came down,” Mord said.
“Y’all thought this was going to be a bad thing,” Dunaway said. “You didn’t know you’d have so much fun.”
The board took the bids under advisement, but members indicated they would probably actually take the second-lowest bid of $69,200.
Board President Larry Montgomery said the International products of the low bidder, Waters, had cost the county a lot in terms of transport and maintenance, as well as time lost on jobs when the trucks weren’t available for use.
The second-lowest bidder, Empire Truck Sales, offers Freightliner trucks.
McComb Diesel and Truckworks also submitted bids, but Dunaway and Supervisor Shelton Stogner noted that most of the bidding action was between “bidder 2 and bidder 3,” eventually revealed to be Waters and Empire.
After the excitement of the reverse auction passed, the board decided to advertise for the purchase of two garbage trucks, with financing and a buyback provision. They said they would seek and give preference to trucks not of International make.
In other business, the board voted Wednesday to approve replacement of the fire suppression system at the jail by Barclay Security of McComb for about $64,000.
Chief Deputy Tony Rushing, standing in for Sheriff Kyle Breland, said Barclay is offering a three-year warranty, and components beyond the disabled control panel will likely wear out soon anyway.
The sheriff presented Barclay’s quote at a previous meeting, as well as an $11,000 quote to replace the control panel and wiring from Electronic Controls of Brookhaven, and a quote of $3,600 to replace the control panel only from E Fire of Tupelo and Gulfport.
The board also:
• Accepted grants for improvements at the Paul Pittman Airport and to purchase a fire truck for District 4.
• Heard an update from Allen Laird of the Southwest Mississippi Planning and Development District on applying for a housing rehabilitation grant.
• Dedicated a $571 insurance payment for a vest stolen from a deputy’s home to the sheriff’s department budget.
• Took under advisement a request to install a separate computer server for the sheriff’s department, quoted at $1,845.
• Reimbursed Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department $126 for mowing and electricity during the station’s service as an voting precinct.
• Donated $250 to the Walthall County Dairy Show.
• Approved a $324 credit to a garbage account.
• Refunded $207 from last year’s land sale.
• Reappointed Buddy Smith to the airport board.
