Commissioners Rescind Temple & Temple Paving Bid, Award Bid to Harrison County Company
- Jacob Dufour | Publisher
- Jun 10
- 3 min read
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On May 6, a decision was made by the Washington County Board of Commissioners to award a paving bid to Temple & Temple, despite the existence of a nearly $80,000 lower bid from C&R Construction in Harrison County. On June 10, that decision was rescinded due to a letter from the Indiana Department of Transportation.
The Board of Commissioners held a special meeting Tuesday morning to address the issue. Commissioner Tony Cardwell made a motion to rescind the decision to award the paving bid to Temple & Temple. Commissioner Phillip Marshall seconded it. The motion passed 2-1, with Commissioner Todd Ewen voting against.
A motion was then made by Cardwell to award the bid to C&R Construction, with Marshall seconding. The motion passed 2-1, with Ewen again voting nay.
"I would like to make a comment in regards to my decision, to vote no in both cases," said Commissioner Ewen. "It's ironic that the Community Crossings grant has the word 'community' in it. It's my belief, and I have always tried to put this in practice: I stand up for my community. I stand up for the people that I go to church with, my neighbors, my friends, all the people who work for this company.
"I have no animosity towards C&R. I really don't know them," Ewen continued. "They've never introduced themselves to me, and I've never reached out to them. One of the few issues I have is hauling the (asphalt) mix such a great distance. Normally, it's not a good practice to haul asphalt much over 30 miles. You run into issues, and I do know a little bit about asphalt.
"But my main point is, I think the state system is somewhat flawed. They want to talk about home rule, and doing what's best, and we want things to be fair, naturally. I just could not vote in favor of this, and what I feel on principle is abandoning my friends, neighbors, and my community. And I hope you respect my decision, whether you agree with it or not. Thank you."
Before the meeting was adjourned, Highway Superintendent Rick Voyles presented the C&R Construction contract to the commissioners and took the seat to make a statement.
"Let's be perfectly clear - the highway department applies for a grant through INDOT's Community Crossings," Voyles began. "They awarded us $1.5 million to benefit our community, and I am very grateful to INDOT. I think this comes off as we think we're too good to go by their rules. I have nothing but good things to say about them and that people at the state - they are very good to work with. We've got Community Crossings from them for our community seven years in a row, and that has made a great difference in our paving. Every penny of that has gone to paving, and has greatly improved our roads. We've not had one hiccup in that seven years. We have very high standing with them. We keep our paperwork up to date. We're at the top of the list. They got money to get rid of, they look at us because we won't screw it up. I do not want to get a black eye, and this affect next year. We need to keep our stuff running tight and be on that 'A list' to get money. We don't need little hiccups and to be an annoyance. I just want to say that I'm very grateful to INDOT, and I think we should all say thank you."
"I see both sides of the coin," Commissioner Cardwell said in a statement after the meeting, "but I feel like the integrity of the bidding process was preserved."
Redaction Notice:
In a previous article, The Washington County Times published that a motion to accept a lawsuit settlement agreement with Hardinsburg PAC that includes the rescission of the ordinances that dissolved the town of Hardinsburg. The previous article read that Commissioners Phillip Marshall and Tony Cardwell voted yes to accept the settlement, and Commissioner Todd Ewen abstained. It was later brought to our attention that Commissioner Ewen voted nay. We have made the appropriate change to the previous article.
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