Although bids have been taken, it has not yet been determined who will be awarded the contract to implode Storms and Knapp Halls in July.

‘There were some issues with some of the low bids; it looks like they didn”t submit their bids correctly,’ said Dean McCormick, assistant director of construction services for facilities planning and management. ‘The apparent low bid isn”t apparent yet, because we have to go through the technical issues.’

There have been 11 bids submitted, with several bids below the construction estimate of $1.8 million.

According to the Facilities Planning and Management Web site, Bianchi Industrial Service LLC of Syracuse, N.Y. made the lowest bid of $1.374 million. Three other bids came in below $1.5 million — Peterson Contractors Inc. of Reinbeck, Iowa bid $1.475 million, Landwehr Construction Inc. of Saint Cloud, Minn. bid $1.449 million and Midland Wrecking Inc. of Lenexa, Kan. bid $1.489 million.

‘When they provide their bid, the data reporting form has to be in there,’ said Kerry Dixon-Fox, architect for facilities planning and management.

Peterson failed to file an equal employment opportunity data reporting form disclosing how many women and minorities work at the company.

Midland failed to file a targeted small businesses form, which describes how many sub-contractors owned by women, minorities or people with disabilities they plan to use.

Dixon-Fox said because of the irregularities, the low bidders have been asked to provide information about past projects they have been involved in, in addition to the required forms that are missing.

‘Especially in a project of this size and type, that”s key for us,’ she said. ‘We want to make sure they are, in fact, qualified bidders.’

Dixon-Fox said after the bids are worked through, which could take up to a week, they will make a recommendation to the Board of Regents, which has the final say of who gets awarded the contract.

Greg Nichols, executive director for the Board of Regents, will make the final decision, Dixon-Fox said.

The Board”s next scheduled meeting is June 13 to 14 in Council Bluffs.

Dixon-Fox said the implosion is planned between July 5 and 21 on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at 10 a.m.

In the meantime, Knapp Hall will be used by the Ames Fire Department for a high-rise fire-fighting exercise on May 26.

Fire Chief Clint Petersen said because of new high rises — defined as buildings taller than 75 feet — being built in Ames, the rare opportunity to practice in an actual high rise is particularly important.

Petersen said larger departments often have a specific, reusable building set up for training — Knapp Hall is not meant for training, so it will cause serious damage to the interior.