On September 2, 2015, a complaint and a motion for a restraining order was filed against Foster County regarding a county shop project. The case is entitled Hagel Construction vs. County of Foster - Case No. 16-2015-CV-00037. The attorneys involved are Paul Murphy, representing Foster County, and Elizabeth Lee Alvine, representing Hagel Construction.
As we all know, years back the voters approved the building of a new county shop. The location and the type of shop were issues of contention between then Chairman Jim Carr and Commissioner Paul Straley. The shop project stayed in limbo until Bill Bauer became chairman of the commission. The shop was put out for bid, and that's when the controversy was renewed.
The controversy centered around whether or not an architect was required to overview and approve the project. Another issue was the type of building structure that the County wanted a bid on. Apparently, the original architect-approved plans required the building of an all-steel structure, in other words, not just simply steel on the exterior or roofing, but a steel building consisting of I-Beam type construction.
Somehow in the process, the commissioners gave the decision to move ahead with a none-architecturally-approved structure. Their choice was to substitute a steel structure for a pole-barn-type structure.
According to the complaint filed by Kelly Hagel, he submitted two bids. One bid was for a wood structure and one was for a steel structure. The complaint goes on to state that he was $20,000 lower than the accepted bid for a pole-barn-type structure.
As well, Mr. Hagel alleges that the bid process involved favoritism in the awarding of the contract, because the winning bidder agreed to buy all the materials for the project in Foster County. Whereas, Mr. Hagel informed the commission that he intended to buy his materials from an out-of-county source.
According to Chairman Carr, at a recent commission meeting, Mr. Hagel withdrew his bid and informed him that he had no intention to filing an action against the county.
However, as you can see Mr. Hagel, filed his complaint and motion for a restraining order on Wednesday, September 2, 2015.
We are wondering if Mr. Schroeder intends to continue working on the shop in light of Mr. Hagel's request for a restraining order stopping all construction.
It should be noted that if you examine all these issues, all these problems, all the missteps, all the confusion and all the controversy... they all center around our States Attorney's total inability to do the job that he's been paid to do. That is to counsel our elected officials on how to avoid breaking the law.
