Bids came in as much as 20 percent higher than college officials anticipated for the first building to be constructed on the Barton ag campus at Trenton. The North Central Missouri College Board of Trustees, acting on a recommendation from the college president, rejected all bids.

Several components of the project will be re-evaluated by college personnel and the architects. Plans now call for the next round of bids to cover TWO buildings as officials hope by increasing the scope of the project will result in better bids overall.

Six companies submitted bids Monday afternoon for site development and construction of the resource building at the Barton campus. The lowest came from Brooner and Associates of St. Joseph with a base bid of one million, 370 thousand dollars.

That was still higher than what College President Neil Nuttall's said was his “comfort level” which ranged from 900 thousand to one point one million. Brooner's base bid was 110 thousand dollars less than the next lowest bid from Key Construction of Kansas City. Bids were as much as one point six million dollars before any alternates were considered.

Doctor Nuttall, along with architect Ron Auxier, described several aspects they felt could be trimmed—thereby reducing costs—while still maintaining a metal building adequate enough for housing college machinery and farm equipment. Revised specifications are to be developed and then presented to the Trustees for consideration at next month's meeting which already was expected to feature bid specs for the plant sciences building.

The 93 hundred square foot resource building plus the 11 thousand square foot plant sciences building, together, makes 20 thousand square feet of construction. The new bids are to reviewed during a September board of trustees meeting.

Trustees approved purchase of an 85 thousand dollar wind turbine for the Barton campus from the Energy Savings Store of Lenexa, Kansas. It's to be a 100 foot wind turbine with safety equipment for use in the colleges' training of wind turbine technicans. It's financed through Northwest Workforce Investment Board for curriculum development leading to an alternative energy certificate.