B&B Wrecking Wins Bid

Bidding for the demolition of a former waste-to-energy plant near Columbus, Ohio, has resulted in a winning bid for B&B Wrecking Co. of Cleveland.

B&B has reportedly offered to pay the government agency bidding out the contract up to $377,500 to perform the demolition job and sell the scrap metal, depending on scrap market prices.

According to a report in the Columbus Dispatch, the successful B&B Wrecking bid was the result of a bidding process that replaced an initial contract that was not put out to bid. An initial contract for $775,000 was reportedly awarded to Columbus demolition contractor S.G. Loewendick & Sons by the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO), the agency overseeing the demolition project.

Under terms of the B&B contract, SWACO will receive $225 per ton for every ton of scrap steel that B&B sells after the first 4,950 tons.

The difference between the two contracts did not sit well with the Columbus Dispatch editorial board, which wrote an editorial column in August of 2004 questioning the original contract and urging the SWACO board to bid the project out.

In an early January editorial written after the B&B bid was accepted, entitled “Better Shop Around,” the Dispatch opined to its readers, “Franklin County taxpayers could hardly ask for a better lesson in comparison shopping.”