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That winter city contract that I passed on this year. I was BSn with the Public Works director for that city. He sent me over the bids. I was amazed at these:

(pasted from e-mail)

City Portion
Parks Portion
Grand Total

Hughes Tree Service
$32,000.00
$80,000.00
$112,000.00

Turkle Tree Sevice
$69,975.00
$4,390.00
$74,365.00

Ace
$146,800.00
$13,220.00
$160,020.00

A-1 Arborist
$49,339.00
$4,975.00
$54,314.00, winner, Low bid

HOW IN THE WORLD!!!! Check out the spread! Crazy!
Ace is the only CA in this group and they have a good rep, so, and I am just guessing here, I think their bid was probably realistic. The others?

A-1 Arborist, well that are not! Guy has had several different names over the years, but is always around. Has decent equip too, just dont see how, with bids like that.Last year, same contract, slightly bigger, went at 143,000 and ACE won it.
 
That winter city contract that I passed on this year. I was BSn with the Public Works director for that city. He sent me over the bids. I was amazed at these:

(pasted from e-mail)

City Portion
Parks Portion
Grand Total

Hughes Tree Service
$32,000.00
$80,000.00
$112,000.00

Turkle Tree Sevice
$69,975.00
$4,390.00
$74,365.00

Ace
$146,800.00
$13,220.00
$160,020.00

A-1 Arborist
$49,339.00
$4,975.00
$54,314.00, winner, Low bid

HOW IN THE WORLD!!!! Check out the spread! Crazy!
Ace is the only CA in this group and they have a good rep, so, and I am just guessing here, I think their bid was probably realistic. The others?

A-1 Arborist, well that are not! Guy has had several different names over the years, but is always around. Has decent equip too, just dont see how, with bids like that.Last year, same contract, slightly bigger, went at 143,000 and ACE won it.

I've always been to high on procurement work to get accepted I think, or it's set up on a buddy system here. I did not ever get lucky enough to see the actual bids except my own though.
 
I've always been to high on procurement work to get accepted I think, or it's set up on a buddy system here. I did not ever get lucky enough to see the actual bids except my own though.

Same here.. always too high to get accepted.

But it would be nice to see some of the rest on some bids, lets you know what they are going for.. or maybe that would be similar to above.. wondering how some guys even get by on what they bid. I have no idea how some do their jobs, must work for $10 an hour to make any extra to cover costs of overhead. And to even bid on most here you have to have proof of at least $5 million liability insurance - some want $10 million (which is what I carry).
 
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In Hawaii, all state and city bids are posted on their website a few days after the bid opening. You can see everybody's bids....public information. I don't bid on those jobs, but from what I have seen, the theory is bid less and do less. About 10 years ago when I bid on a park near my home, the low bidder got the job and did not even remove one of the trees on the list. I called the parks dept. and nothing.
 
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the low bidder got the job and did not even remove one of the trees on the list. I called the parks dept. and nothing.

Not sure if that is hilarious or sickening.. :confused:

Guess the question would be what did they do.. and did they get paid full amount.. (ie: were they requested or asked to do something else than on original bid.. ).. If in fact they did nothing and got paid.. then something is wrong somewhere.
 
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Had a good year this year, kept all my mowing contracts and now with the stumpgrinder i will have business all winter when no mowing, got hurt a little because of the drought, was able to pay off the mower and the grinder was an even trade for a tractor i had, so should go into next year in good shape..

Have a good one..

Bob..
 
Not sure if that is hilarious or sickening.. :confused:

Guess the question would be what did they do.. and did they get paid full amount.. (ie: were they requested or asked to do something else than on original bid.. ).. If in fact they did nothing and got paid.. then something is wrong somewhere.

Yeah, Work needs to be signed off, we do enough of that to know.
Jeff ;)
 
Had a good year this year, kept all my mowing contracts and now with the stumpgrinder i will have business all winter when no mowing, got hurt a little because of the drought, was able to pay off the mower and the grinder was an even trade for a tractor i had, so should go into next year in good shape..

Have a good one..

Bob..

Sounds good glad to see ya doing well:cheers:
 
Not sure if that is hilarious or sickening.. :confused:

Guess the question would be what did they do.. and did they get paid full amount.. (ie: were they requested or asked to do something else than on original bid.. ).. If in fact they did nothing and got paid.. then something is wrong somewhere.

Oh they did the paperwork at least:monkey:
 
Lately, work has been much better than expected. As good as any late Nov. or early Dec. for my business in the Portland or Beaverton area.

But I'm also looking to get into doing website content work for our son who builds sites and does code.

Coding is his favorite. He's not real keen on constructing paragraphs or image tags for sites. The layout and how its assembled is his fave.

But recently, weather has been getting under my skin, and I'm looking to get out of the weather like 2 days per week average. Still do pruning and landscape stuff.
 

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