The cargo bed is too small.
That detail caused the Harvey County Board of County Commissioners to rescind a bid offer to purchase three Utility Terrain Vehicles from 321 Kawasaki of El Dorado.
Last week, the county approved paying $41,653 to the company for three UTV vehicles to go to the parks and solid waste departments.
However, this week county administration asked the commission to instead rescind that offer because it found that the bed of a vehicle it was to purchase, a Kawasaki Mule Pro FXR, was 13.9 square feet and not 20 square feet, meaning it didn’t meet the county’s previous specifications.
County Public Information Officer Kyle McCaskey stated that county administration noticed the error and was also notified by another vendor, Dan’s Cycles, of the mistake. At the meeting, County Administrator Anthony Swartzendruber suggested that the county go with the lowest bidder it had that still met specifications.He said that if they allowed 321 Kawasaki to change its bid, they’d need to do that for all bidders.
The next lowest bidder was Dan’s Cycle out of Hesston, with a total cost of $41,769.
Krehbiel, after hearing Lewis’ explanation of why its bid didn’t meet specifications, responded.
“I can appreciate what you’re saying and understand,” he said. “But what we’re getting at here is if it doesn’t meet specs, we need to not accept it period.”
(Read more: Newton Now)