November 2, 2009

 

Dear Friends,

You may have read in Friday’s Arizona Daily Sun an incomplete and decidedly unbalanced article regarding Northern Arizona University and its construction partner Mortenson Construction’s hiring of subcontractors for the Health and Learning Center.

It is unfortunate that the newspaper failed to recognize the value of this project—the largest in NAU’s history—to its students and the greater campus community and the economic value it brings to Flagstaff, northern Arizona and the state. This project will create thousands of jobs for Arizona and will generate more than $7 million in city and state tax revenue as well as add $50 million in labor wages to the state’s economy.

Friday’s article had numerous omissions that unfortunately did not tell the entire story.  Although I won’t respond point by point at this time, the main points I would like to make are:

  1. It is our legal obligation to abide by state law in the bidding process and it is our fiduciary responsibility to protect the students’ and taxpayers’ money. The process of prequalifying subcontractors is a standard industry practice and is essential with a project of this size and scope to ensure mechanical, electrical and plumbing subcontractors were involved early in the design phase to avoid potential problems once construction actually started. The selection of the qualified bidders was made by a committee representing the university, the contractor, the project architect and a third-party contractor.

  2. These are difficult economic times and I understand the sentiment of hiring locally. The university continually strives to encourage local participation wherever possible. NAU and Mortenson Construction have worked diligently to communicate with Flagstaff’s contracting community. We developed lists of local vendors, conducted informational phone campaigns, issued advance notifications about the project plans, conducted informational meetings, ran ads in the newspaper and continue to ensure the project is communicated to the construction industry.

  3. Mortenson divided up work on the Health and Learning Center project as a way to encourage bids from local vendors who otherwise might not be qualified to bid on the larger total project.

  4. Thus far, three locally based companies, Summa Mechanical Contractors, Ignace Brothers Drywall and Auza Construction, have been awarded contracts on the Health and Learning Center.

  5. Contracts on other ongoing NAU projects have been awarded to several locally based companies, including Kinney Construction Services, Summa Mechanical Contractors, Loven Contracting, N.J. Shaum and Son, Johnson Walzer Associates, Flagstaff Design and Construction and Bustamante-Kelly Collaborative.

  6. Local construction companies have earned tens of millions of dollars over the last few years through projects on the NAU campus. As an example, a Flagstaff mechanical subcontractor and an electrical subcontractor have been awarded nearly $20 million in work on campus just in the past four years.

NAU is part of this community. Our success is Flagstaff’s success, and Flagstaff’s success is NAU’s success. The university looks forward to opportunities to work together on future projects that will address critical building needs on campus and also stimulate our local, regional and statewide economy.

Let me close by inviting you to subscribe to Inside NAU to receive complete and up-to-date news about what is happening at the university, and we always welcome your feedback.

Sincerely,

John Haeger

John D. Haeger
President