Disappointed in Tama city council

I was reading the minutes of the Tama City Council meeting and was shocked to see that the council approved a generator for the sewer treatment plant for $169,727 to Van Maanen Electric Inc. I was asked approximately 12-14 months ago to help size a generator for the treatment plant. With help from our Kohler representative, we came up with a size to run the plant.

I was told that the city decided to hire an electrical engineer to draw up plans. I have made a couple of calls to see when the plans were going to be available and now without any knowledge to me, I find out that it was awarded to Van Maanen. I don’t mind not getting bids for jobs, but I didn’t even get the chance to bid this job at all. Does the engineer get to pick who gets the plans for jobs?

We have 23 employees that are local and we give bids to out of town companies but buying local is what everyone wants. If locals don’t get the chance to bid, then you are hurting the local economy. We have been giving back to Tama-Toledo for years. We have done many commercial generators in the past.

I wish Tama City Council would have reached out to local contractors with a bid package! I hope this contractor will be as generous to Tama-Toledo as we are. Again, I am very disappointed we did not get the opportunity to bid this project. A phone call of explanation would be greatly appreciated.

Tom Scharnweber

President of Scharnweber Inc.