It’s official: I knew of this yesterday (there was a tight lid on the news until our staff had notified all of the parties), but the local general contractors vying to bring the $13+ million in NCC construction spending home to Nevada County are in the lead for the contract. I just received a call confirming that the news is out. This will be a $30+ million dollar economic stimulus to Nevada County and surrounding communities.

After yesterday’s interviews, Leo (CEO), Doug (VP of Finance and Administration) and Laura (Director of Facilities Construction) huddled and made the decision to proceed to negotiating the GMP (“Guaranteed Maximum Price”) with the Tru-Line Builders / Sierra Foothills Construction / Clark & Sullivan team, a joint venture which is majority owned by the two local firms and is headquartered in Grass Valley.

The runner-up, Rudolph & Sletten, is a fantastic construction firm as well, and recently did an amazing job on the Sierra College Truckee-Tahoe Campus. They remain on stand-by for this project in case the negotiations don’t work out competitively with the Nevada County-based team.

Throughout this process, I’ve been advocating for the best result to keep our local tax dollars local, and our staff has done an incredible job helping to create that outcome. We have carefully balanced the desire to keep the dollars local with the need to deliver the best value to the taxpayers who are investing their dollars into their community college. We cannot afford to pay a premium to keep the dollars local, but I think in the process, we’ve discovered that we won’t have to. This is the best of both worlds.

This is by no means a done deal, and the negotiations between the local team and our staff have to conclude before the Board of Trustees can approve an agreement, but this is a great step forward. My hat is off to Leo, Doug, Laura, and the team at Sierra College for a job well done.

It’s also been a privilege to work on this effort with Barbara Bashall at Nevada County Contractor’s Association. She is a tireless advocate for the local economy, and has been a great partner in this effort.