Delay apparently caused by initial testing protocols; Harvard hired as consultant

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(April 5, 2018) Root Companies Inc. of Baltimore will handle mold remediation at the Ocean Pines yacht club, following an unanimous vote by the association’s board of directors last Thursday.

Four bids were received for the service, with ServPro submitting the low bid at about $43,000.

“However, their figure does not include certain work that they have identified would have to be done by a separate subcontractor,” Director Ted Moroney said.

The Root Companies bid was the second lowest at about $55,000.

Mold discovered at the yacht club in December forced the facility to close in early January. It has not reopened.

General Manager John Bailey on Thursday said, “One of the questions that a lot of folks had was, ‘why is this taking so long?’”

According to Bailey, an outside company tested for mold and developed mold remediation protocols to help guide the bidding process.

“Well, when we had the bidders come in … to look at that, they were just not comfortable with the protocols,” Bailey said.

At that point, Bailey said Harvard Environmental Inc. was brought in to develop new protocols more friendly to contractors, “and that allowed us to get other bids.”

Director Slobodan Trendic said he favored a Tower Restoration bid of more than $69,000, in part because the company is based locally, in Ocean City. A fourth bid, by Global Exterminating Inc. of Berlin, was $200,000.

“The real question comes down [to], are you willing to pay about $14,000 more on a $55,000 contract,” Moroney said. “Looking at it from my end, the saving grace to go with [Root] is that you’ve got our third-party consultant doing the inspection and signing off on the end that it’s done correct.

“If we didn’t have Harvard coming in and doing the third-party [inspection] … that would be one thing,” he continued. “It’s hard for me to swallow $15,000 – I could if we didn’t have a third-party inspector.”