Commissioners Award $1.8 Million Paving Contract to Temple & Temple
- Nathaniel Smith | Editor-in-Chief
- May 6
- 6 min read
Updated: May 10
On May 6, the Washington County Commissioners held a normal meeting at their normal location at the Salem Courthouse, but the attendance was anything but normal. What is usually a sparsely populated gallery was instead filled to the brim with employees from Temple & Temple, owned by Ken Temple. Temple and his employees were present in hopes that they would receive a bid in regard to paving projects funded partially by grant money provided by Community Crossings.
Temple & Temple vehicles filled entire sections of the Salem square Tuesday morning during the Commissioners Meeting.
Photos courtesy of Scot Thixton.
Community Crossings is a state program that awards cities and counties across the state with grants in order to be able to complete various projects. The bid in question totals to approximately $1.8 million with a total difference of $78,096 between the two competing bids. Washington County is responsible for 25% of the cost of the projects completed with Community Crossings grant money, and that totals to approximately $19,524.
“The reason why I let everybody come is because they need to know what affects their livelihood. They have to pay property taxes and they have to take care of their families, and I wanted them to be in on this and see firsthand of whatever is going to happen,” Temple began.
“I’m going to give you some facts first,” he continued. “The state takes care of 75% of this money. So, anything past your 25%, the state will give to some other county if it’s not used. So, your 25% that you have to pay would cost the county $19,500. That’s all the county would be out.”
Temple continued by explaining a bit about mixing asphalt. He said that the company offering the lower priced bid utilizes what is called a drum mix plant as opposed to Temple’s batch plant. He explained that in his opinion, a drum mix plant produces a cheaper product that tends to not hold up as well.
“To me, I think we have a superior product, that’s my opinion,” said Temple. “Is their plant legal? Yes, it is. I’ll be the first one to tell you it is… Of course, we count on the county’s business every year. I can name every business in town from Ace Hardware, Washington County Tire Shop, John Jones, Sullivan’s Concrete Coating, I buy from all of these companies that are local. I could go downtown and probably save 10%, but I don’t because this community will build if we help each other. The difference of $19,500 is less than half a percent, which I could pick up easily if I just did not help the community, but I’m going to help the community.”
Temple went on to describe more of his community support.
“We also contribute to all three schools in great length: softball, basketball, cheerleading, you name it, whatever," he said. "We are taking kids from West Washington who aren’t going to be rocket scientists, and we are helping to get them into a trade. We contribute to the police department and to every one of the emergency services…
“We contribute to every festival, you name it. I think it’s good because it is reinvesting into the community. We spend over $200,000 each year trying to bring in businesses, and most of them have three to four employees. So, all that money to try to bring in business to Washington County, but we’re not sure if we’re going to support our local business, which you’ve got to admit is a little wild…
“During the last storm, the county all rushed out to my facility. We never charged a penny, never charged any of the community. We put cranes and men out to help with the storm, free of charge,” said Temple. “We pay about $350,000 a year in property taxes. In this room with just our people, it’s a million dollars. So, you’ve got a million dollars of tax money that you would hopefully reinvest in your own community. We pay out over a million (dollars) to all these little businesses here in town. I can get it cheaper. I can go downtown and buy cheaper – I don’t want to. I want to reinvest in the local.
“This bid alone would put $3 million back into the local community, into the economy, into all the small businesses, and that is the most conservative one. So, I want you to read the last sentence of your bid that you guys wrote. It says, ‘the owner reserves the right to check any and all proposals. We wave technicalities, irregularities therein to delete bid items or other items and to award contracts based on bid proposals as in their (the commissioners) judgment serves the best interest and the most advantageous to Washington County.’ To me, it’s a no-brainer. For $19,500, you can get millions of dollars and all of these people’s jobs. I probably shouldn’t be, but I am very dependent on your work. You’re talking about local people getting laid off that have families to take care of. They’ve got property taxes to pay. I hope you vote for Washington County,” Temple concluded.
Ken Temple’s remarks were met with a loud applause from his employees in the gallery. Later in the meeting, Commissioner Tony Cardwell made a motion to award the bid to the competing company, C&R Construction in Corydon.
“I’ll make the motion to award the bid to C&R Construction,” said Cardwell.
“I’d like to comment and have a little discussion first,” Commissioner Todd Ewen began. “It’s a $1.8 million contract basically, with a difference of about $77,000. I’m not familiar with C&R Construction. I’ve never met them, never talked to them. For all I know, they’re good people. I appreciate them submitting a bid, but I think this gathering today says a lot… I cannot lay my head on my pillow and sleep a peaceful sleep and dream sweet dreams tonight after voting for the lowest bid because I honestly don’t think it is the lowest bid if you look at all the positive things, and I think it would have a negative impact on our community. I won’t be the one seconding the motion if there is a second.”
Commissioner Cardwell then invited a representative from C&R Construction to come forward so that “Mr. Ewen can meet you and can’t say he’s never met you.” To which, Commissioners Ewen and Marshall said to themselves at the table, “no, no that’s not part of this.”
After Cardwell’s invitation to the C&R Construction representative was shut down, Commissioner Phillip Marshall moved forward with his thoughts on the matter.
“When I look out into the crowd, most of the guys I know. I think the impact would be felt pretty harshly in this county with people fighting for jobs and jobs and jobs. In the same token, they have to feed their families, pay their taxes, and most of them probably buy here. We all know Ken… your dad and mom, we go back a long way,” said Marshall as he began to tear up. “I’ve always believed in the bidding process, but at the same time, I feel like I would be doing an injustice for our own people. I ain’t taking the low bid. So, I guess if I’m going to get sued, I’ll get sued.”
“So what’s the use in bidding projects then?” asked Cardwell.
“I have to agree with you,” replied Marshall. “Maybe we shouldn’t (take bids).”
“This is what the county has come to here, more or less,” Cardwell said. “What I hear is ‘gangster government’ all the time. This is exactly what the people of the county are talking about. I like you as a person Ken, but that’s the way it was when I was a contractor. The low bid got the job… I ain’t got nothing against anybody.”
“It sounds like it!” someone called out from the gallery.
“Honestly, in my opinion,” Ewen began. “I’m speaking for myself here and not anybody else, but had the difference in the bid been $150,000 or $200,000, then honestly, it would be different for me. I make a motion that we award the bid to Temple & Temple.”
After a brief pause, Marshall commented, “I’d like to second that.”
The motion passed with Ewen and Marshall both voting yes, and with Cardwell voting against it, awarding the $1.8 million paving contract to Temple & Temple.
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