The Henderson Fiscal Court on Tuesday asked Henderson Fire Department officials to negotiate with the company who made the singular bid on a grain bin training facility, with the hopes that a more suitable price can be agreed on.
The lone bid, from J & B Mechanical, of Henderson, came in at $426,812, which is well over the $300,000 the fiscal court had budgeted for the project.
The facility is proposed to allow county volunteer fire departments and the Henderson Fire Department to train for grain bin rescues.
HFD Battalion Chief James Egbert pointed to a study that said the high-risk, low-frequency events end in death about 50% of the time. He also mentioned a grain bin rescue that occurred in Corydon in March 2024 in which a farmer got stuck in a grain bin and had to be pulled out by emergency responders.
In that incident, John Southard, who is the uncle of Magistrate Tim Southard, got stuck waist-deep in a grain bin. Multiple agencies worked to free him. According to media reports, units from Smith Mills Volunteer Fire Department, Corydon Civil Defense, Henderson City-County Rescue and the HFD helped to rescue Southard.
HFD Chief Josh Dixon said that the county ranks in the top five in grain production in the state, and it’s not a question of if but when another person will get stuck in a grain bin.
Previously, the city and county governments agreed to an MOU in which the county government would fund the construction of the facility, and once built on city-owned land, the facility would be turned over to the city, including both its maintenance and scheduling.
Officials say that all local departments would be able to train at the facility, and Judge-Executive Brad Schneider said Tuesday in answer to a question that departments from other municipalities would also be able to schedule time to train there.
Because the lone bid though is well over the county government’s budgeted amount, Dixon laid out a few options to proceed. One was to accept the bid—even though it was much higher than hoped for—because it met all the specifications that had been advertised.
A second option was to negotiate with the bidder that made the singular bid, which officials at the meeting said is legal both by state statute and county administrative code.
A third option was to put the job out for bid again.
The fiscal court didn’t like the first option because it was too high over the budgeted amount or the third option because advertising a second time for the same job often returns even higher bids.
Magistrate Taylor Tompkins suggested that HFD negotiate with J & B Mechanical and create a line item list to determine if some pieces of the project can be omitted. All magistrates voted to approve a motion that HFD negotiate with J & B Mechanical. Dixon said he would return with a proposal for the fiscal court to consider in a couple weeks.
