Conference Call Transcript 2-16-2018.docx

Firewood Rebid RFP 180000001116 Conference Call 2/16/18 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EST Present at Lansing Lisa Crozier-Green, Solicitation Manager, Jason Fleming, PRD Chief On call:

Alexandria – ABC Property Management Logging Jack Kleinhardt – Lana Kleinhardt Wood Products Terry – Black Sheep Central Doug & Barbara – Splittin’ Me Timbers Victoria – Summit Wood Products Pat – Hauger Forest Products

Lisa Crozier-Green:

Please do not submit your proposal before March 2, 2018. I will be making revisions to the RFP documents.

The Q & A process helps Purchasing better understand requirements and make recommendations.

After March 2, 2018, please download all REVISED documents to use for your submission.

Friday, February 23, 2018 3:00 p.m. EST is the deadline for vendors to submit emailed questions.

Friday, March 2, 2018 is the deadline for Purchasing to submit answers to vendor questions.

Friday, March 9, 2018 3:00 p.m. EST is the deadline to submit proposals.

Please do not contact Park Staff, DNR employees or other State of Michigan employees regarding this bid. Contacting anyone other than the Solicitation Manager may result in proposal disqualification.

There have been a lot of questions regarding the locations included in this RFP. Several locations were previously on concession contracts, and may be on concession contracts going forward. Parks has requested that current concession locations be included in this RFP so that PRD can determine whether concession contracts should be awarded going forward.

Question: Where do we find the previous contracts? Where would I go to find prior bids or contracts? Answer: For the purposes of this bid, please refer to the documents included in this bid. Prior bids are not relevant. To access prior bids, refer to www.buy4michigan.com.

Question: I contacted the SIGMA Help Desk but they haven’t responded yet.

Answer: SIGMA is new, this may be difficult. The people at the SIGMA Help Desk are very busy. Current response time is 2 – 3 days. Please allow adequate time for the SIGMA Help Desk to respond.

Question: On the opening page of the bid, I’m seeing a purchase history. What is this?

Answer: Purchase History – This information is incorrect. No one is sure why this information is showing up. Please disregard.

Question: Where can we locate the bid attachments?

All RFP documents have been attached to the bid posting in SIGMA. Attachments can be accessed from the opening page, under the “attachments” tab. The Solicitation documents were included as attachments in the email sent to all firewood vendors on February 13, 2018 at 5:09 p.m.

Question: If I understand correctly, there are concession locations that have been included in this RFP. Are these going to be bid out as concessions?

Answer: Not necessarily. These locations were previously on concession contracts and have been included in this RFP to provide Parks with an opportunity to determine whether the locations should be rebid as concession locations, or whether to award as part of the new firewood contracts. Vendors interested in providing firewood at locations previously on concession contracts should include those locations in their proposal.

Question: What are the new requirements for concession contracts?

Answer: This conference call is to discuss the current RFP for firewood contracts. Concession contracts are not part of this conversation.

Question: Some State Parks currently don’t offer firewood for resale and they don’t have a concessionaire. Can vendors bid on these locations?

Answer: Vendors may submit proposals for any locations included in this RFP.

Question: Would you be willing revise the RFP to allow vendors to submit pricing for artificial firewood for both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas?

Answer: No. Vendors of artificial firewood are asked to provide one price, including delivery, for both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

Question: Schedule B2 (for artificial firewood) encompasses the whole state which makes it difficult to provide a bid. Is there a map which shows a difference between the UP and LP?

Answer: Pleas e refer to Schedule B1 for Upper and Lower Peninsula locations. All locations in the UP are in the first section of that document.

Question: Are you not saying that all the Parks need to be one price?

Answer: No. For artificial firewood, the DNR is requesting one price, delivered to the UP and LP.

Question: Can we bid the Lower Peninsula separate from the UP, or do we bid the whole thing as one price?

Answer: The DNR is asking vendors of artificial firewood to provide pricing for the UP and LP as one price. Vendors submitting proposals for bundled and bulk firewood should price by the location.

Question: For artificial firewood, there are locations requesting delivery to a rack. How would that work?

Answer: The locations with site specific delivery locations pertain to bundled or bulk firewood, not artificial firewood.

What is artificial firewood?

Artificial firewood is a byproduct of wood production. Typically they are compacted blocks or logs made of sawdust and some sort of binding agent.

Question: How can we tell if the locations are set up for our delivery vehicle? If we can’t go to the parks to check them out to see how the unloading would be, how can we bid on that?

Answer: Vendors are expected to avoid any communication with Park staff. Procurement has worked closely with Park staff to determine what their delivery needs are. Any location with restrictions on the type of vehicle that can be used for deliveries is noted in the Location Specification Sheets.

Question: So we can’t go to the Parks and look at the facilities, at all? Or we just can’t talk about the prices with Park staff?

Answer: Vendors are required to limit all communication during the solicitation process to the Solicitation Manager only. Contacting any other State personnel, DNR employee, PRD staff, agent, consultant or representative may result in disqualification of the proposal and may cause the vendor to be ineligible for contract award. Please do not discuss anything regarding this solicitation with any Park staff. If the communication has anything to do with the firewood bid, you cannot discuss it with anyone else. This is part of the procurement process. This can be difficult sometimes, but it allows procurement to remain transparent on all issues regarding the solicitation and any requirements, recommendations or specifications.

Question: What is the time frame for the contract? When would it begin and when would it end.

Answer: The DNR anticipates any contract awarded will have a May 1, 2018 start date. End dates will be determined prior to award recommendations and will be based on the proposals received. The DNR is prepared to offer contracts up to five base years, with five 1-year options to renew. The DNR is also prepared to make award recommendations for shorter periods of time. The goal is 100% heat treated wood, at 100% of locations that offer camping.

Question: The people who offer heat treated wood. Will they have preference over people who don’t?

Answer: There’s no straight answer for that. We don’t know at this time which vendors are going to submit proposals, which locations will be included in the proposals received, or who will be recommended for award. Again, the DNR’s preference is to minimize the treat of invasive species on State property, so the preference is for heat treated wood.

Question: Are we allowed to bid on just a few locations, or are we required to bid on all the locations?

Answer: Vendors may submit proposals for as many locations as they want. There is no requirement to bid on all locations, or any combination of locations, or any minimum number of locations. The only requirement regarding the locations included is that vendors provide a price, per bundle, for scheduled delivery, for each location they are interested in providing firewood for, and that any location which is NOT included in the proposal be marked as “No Bid.” Schedule B1 is broken down by the Governor’s prosperity regions. Vendors can bid on any locations in a group, all locations in a group, one location in a group, etc.

Question: Are the locations listed in Schedule A?

Answer: No. Locations are included in the line items in SIGMA, and also in two documents included as attachments with the bid in SIGMA, the Location Specification Sheets, and in Schedule B1 – Locations and Vendor Quotation.

Question: Where do we start to begin this process? Where do you recommend we start?

Answer: Start with the Solicitation Instructions, which provide you with the list of documents you will need to complete and attach with your proposal. Second complete the Vendor Questions Worksheet. Next complete Schedule A – Statement of Work. Put your pricing in the correct line in SIGMA, and include the price per bundle in the spreadsheet Schedule B1 (or Schedule B2 for artificial firewood). Proposals will be scored based on the responses provided in the Vendor Questions Worksheet and Schedule A, so complete responses are important. The State cannot award points if there is no response. If you’re asked for information, provide a response. N/A is not a response.

Question: On the home page of the SIGMA site, there are two options. One is respond online. Is that what we use?

Answer: Yes. Choose the “respond online” option. All vendors are required to complete the Vendor Questions Worksheet, Schedule A, either Schedule B1 or B2, Schedule C – Statement of Wood Origin for each location included in your proposal, and provide all requested back up documentation AND enter your price, per bundle, in the corresponding line item in SIGMA. Location 1 is line 1 in SIGMA.

Question: Minimum order and maximum orders. For artificial firewood, do we need to stay with the minimum order or the maximum amount per delivery?

Answer: The minimum order and maximum delivery requirements is for bundled firewood. Typically that is about four pallets.

Question: On the concessionaires, how do I know if a location wants a concessionaire, or not?

Answer: If the locations are included in this bid package, vendors can submit proposals for those locations. Some of the locations included could be awarded to concessionaires, but the DNR won’t have that information until proposals are received and contract award recommendations are made. If you are interested in a location included in this bid package, submit pricing for that location.

Question: On the contract it says the insurance requirements. Do we have to have the insurance the way it’s stated when we submit the bid?

Answer: No. Insurance certificates will be requested when contracts are awarded.

Question: The Statement of Wood Origin, is that something everyone needs to complete?

Answer: Yes. Any vendor submitting a proposal for bundled or bulk firewood must complete a Schedule C – Statement of Wood Origin for each location proposed. The reason vendors need to complete a Schedule C for each location included in the proposal is because the DNR won’t know, until contracts are awarded, Question: What if it changes? What if we do a Schedule C for each location and then we get the wood from someplace else?

Answer: If you are awarded a contract, Schedule C will become part of that contract. If the location where you are sourcing wood changes, the vendor will be responsible for contacting the Contract Administrator to complete a new Schedule C.

Question: You said you are going to revise and update the documents? Will you have that done by March 2nd?

Answer: March 2nd is the date I have scheduled as the latest date I will post vendor questions and the DNR’s answers to those questions. My intention is to limit the number of amendments to the bid, so the revised documents will be posted at the same time as the Q&A is posted. When revised documents are posted, vendors will receive an email with all the documents included as attachments.

Question: Regarding the size of the bundled firewood, this year you’re asking for the size of the bundles to be ¾ of a cubic foot?

Answer: ¾ of a cubic foot is the minimum size. Bundles can be larger than ¾ of a cubic foot, but not smaller than ¾ of a cubic foot.

Question: In the past, the firewood in the bid was a specific size, and there were requirements for the size of the pieces of wood in the bundle and the number of pieces of wood in the bundle. Is that still the same?

Answer: Yes. There are requirements in Schedule A for the minimum bundle size, the minimum and maximum size of pieces of wood in each bundle, and the number of pieces of wood in a bundle.

Question: What do we do if we have more questions after the conference call?

Answer: Vendors have until February 23, 2018 at 3:00 p.m. to email questions. All questions asked will be included in a log, and all answers will be included. All questions, and all official answers will be included in the log. I am not responding directly to vendor questions. All questions will be included in the log.

Question: What is the deadline on March 6th?

Answer: That is the last day vendors can request my assistance with submitting a proposal in SIGMA. Proposals are due March 9, 2018 at 3:00 p.mm. EST.

Question: Will there be any more proposals sent out for firewood, or is this it?

Answer: Every location offering overnight camping has been included in this bid. The locations are DNR Parks and Recreation Areas.

Question: For artificial firewood, they need a fire starter? Should that be included in the price?

Answer: Yes. If a fire starter is required, please include that in your price.

Question: When will the contracts be awarded?

Answer: Contracts will be awarded as soon as possible after evaluation is complete. The latest date the new contract will be effective is May 1, 2018.