http://educationmatters.us/2007/04/04/school-board-balks-at-high-cost-of-turfing-grayslake-central-field/ Reform Education because Education Mattes Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:37:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://educationmatters.us/2007/04/04/school-board-balks-at-high-cost-of-turfing-grayslake-central-field/#comment-1345 John Cederlund Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:31:57 +0000 http://educationmatters.us/?p=725#comment-1345 It is funny that they are only recognizing 2 bids for this project, when in reality there were 5 bids recieved, my firm was the apperent low bidder at $655,000. We have been doing sport fields for over 16 years and the synthetic turf supplier (Sprinturf) which we represent has installed over 300 synthetic turf fields like the one at Central School. We were disqualified because the owners represenatives didn't feel we had enough experience, when in reality the specifications were designed for Field Turf only ( the highest bidder )because they have more NFL fields than we do. Spending an additional $180,000 is OK if your the NFL with private funds, but to spend that much extra of taxpayers hard earned money is a crime. They never called our references and we were never even contacted by the board after I personally wrote the board members to make them aware of this lack of due diligence. I do not reside in this district but it disappoints me when I see money wasted like this, how many books would $180,000 buy or how many teachers could this pay for. Somebody needs to be held accountable. Would anyone on that board pay that much more for the same product out of their pocket if they weren't using the taxpayers money, I don't think so! P.S. is any of these board members up for re-election, maybe the voters should think twice. It is funny that they are only recognizing 2 bids for this project, when in reality there were 5 bids recieved, my firm was the apperent
low bidder at $655,000. We have been doing sport fields for
over 16 years and the synthetic turf supplier (Sprinturf)
which we represent has installed over 300 synthetic turf
fields like the one at Central School. We were disqualified
because the owners represenatives didn’t feel we had enough
experience, when in reality the specifications were
designed for Field Turf only ( the highest bidder )because
they have more NFL fields than we do. Spending an additional
$180,000 is OK if your the NFL with private funds, but to spend
that much extra of taxpayers hard earned money is a crime.
They never called our references and we were never even
contacted by the board after I personally wrote the board
members to make them aware of this lack of due diligence.
I do not reside in this district but it disappoints me when
I see money wasted like this, how many books would
$180,000 buy or how many teachers could this pay for.
Somebody needs to be held accountable. Would anyone on
that board pay that much more for the same product out of
their pocket if they weren’t using the taxpayers money, I
don’t think so!
P.S. is any of these board members up for re-election,
maybe the voters should think twice.

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