At the request of a Bellingham based contractor, the Haines Borough Finance Committee considered expanding the borough’s local bid preference by offering a preference to contractors who are based outside of Haines but keep a staffed office in town.
Current code allows the borough to award a project to a Haines based contractor if that contractor’s bid, after a 7 percent reduction is applied, is less than an outside firm’s bid.
Committe member Tom Morphet suggested changing code to provide a 5 percent bidder preference to kick in for contractors who maintain a staffed office in town only if Haines based contractors’ bids aren’t the lowest.
No decision was made and the finance committee wants to meet with contractors before they take further action.