Byrne & Jones Sports Delivers Artificial Surface Fields in Less Than 90 Days
The O’Fallon Family Sports Park has scored big time with a cooperative purchasing agreement that has delivered seven new soccer fields in less than 90 days while saving $1 million. Rather than put the project out to bid, the city tapped the National Joint Power Alliance (NJPA) to complete all of its product and service purchasing. The turnkey project for the artificial turf field was procured through NJPA vendor Shaw Sports Turf, based in Calhoun, Ga. St. Louis-based Byrne & Jones Sports performed the work transforming the sports complex’s natural turf fields to synthetic turf.
Cooperative purchase agreements allow cities, schools and governmental entities to more efficiently procure products and services through vendors that have been thoroughly vetted and priced by a cooperative purchasing entity. The purchasing consortium becomes the lead agency in bidding and awarding contracts for its members who can select turnkey contracts that have already been competitively bid. It saves time and money because there is one procurement process rather than many.
Staples, Minn-based NJPA leverages the national purchasing power of more than 50,000 member agencies while also streamlining the required purchasing process. In the case of O’Fallon, it established a guaranteed maximum price of $4.5 million for the seven new fields, including installation. The city originally projected the cost to be $5.5 million to put the bid out themselves, including the product and warranty, engineering and the certified builder to perform site preparation and installation.
“We wanted to ensure taxpayer money on the sports complex renovations was spent wisely,” said Mary Jeanne Hutchison, director of O’Fallon Parks and Recreation. “NJPA gave us a complete package that had been thoroughly researched and priced. In the end, we got the product we wanted for the right price and were able to strea
