Questions logic in lighting bid decision
From Frank Heys
Musco Lighting Representative
Oskaloosa
Dear Tax Payers of Creston Community School District:
On June 3, the Creston High School had a new sports lighting system up for bid for the football and baseball fields. At the actual bid opening, Van Maanan Electric, which bid Musco Lighting, was the low bidder for both the football and baseball fields by a combined total of $60,000. This sounds like a great savings for the school district and you the taxpayers.
However, the Musco system was not chosen because the engineer that the school hired from Nebraska wrote a spec that required a specific light-level and fixture count. Because Musco’s energy efficient lighting fixtures allows us to use 40 percent less fixtures than our competitors, Musco can easily meet the light levels, but the fixture count on the Musco system would be much less than the required fixture count. We have asked the engineer from Nebraska to correct this on previous jobs Musco has been involved with so that the schools can compare apples to apples, but we have not been successful in getting him to change his way of thinking.
Musco has used this same fixture on the new Yankees, Mets and Dodgers stadiums, Wimbledon, NASCAR tracks and multiple NFL and MLB stadiums. Thousands of schools, parks and little leagues, all over the world, have the same energy efficient lighting fixture installed that was rejected by your school district.
The Iowa High School Athletic Association has even developed lighting standards that, among other things, suggest specifying the most energy-efficient product. Not only was Musco’s bid $60,000 less, but the Musco system was estimated to save the school district $31,000-plus in energy savings over the next 25 years.
After all this, I think the most disheartening thing is that Musco gave this discount to the school because we are an Iowa company that manufactures its product in Iowa and employs Iowans. Yet the school chose, based on recommendations from an engineer from Nebraska, to pick the highest bid, getting a lighting system that is not manufactured in Iowa.
Perhaps you, the taxpayer, should ask the school district why.
