The Town of Miami Lakes is unique in its beauty. The community is known for its lush green spaces, extensive tree-lined streets, and stunning neighborhood parks. For many years, the Town has been committed to becoming the most uniformly, beautiful municipality in the region and has strived to become so with the implementation of several initiatives including the Beautification Master Plan. In furtherance of this goal, Town staff is actively searching for methods to make progress with the master plan and beautify areas within the Town.

One of the main priorities of the master plan is to beautify the Town's gateways that are the first impression of the community for many visitors. This project provides for landscape and irrigation improvements to the gateway area located along the west side of SR826, east of NW 77 Court, between NW 154th Street to NW 160th Street adjacent to the Royal Oaks shopping center. To assist with the funding for this project, Town staff applied for the Florida Highway Beautification Council Grant Program on September 30, 2013. The grant project amount was for an amount not to exceed $200,000, which included a 50% match from the Town (not to exceed $100,000). The Town was awarded the grant on September 14, 2014 and is set to expire on June 30, 2017.

On November 14, 2016, the Town issued Invitation to Bid (“ITB”) 2017-09 for FDOT Beautification 77th Court Project, with a closing date of December 5, 2016. The Scope of Work consists of furnishing all labor, materials, machinery, tools, means of transportation, supplies, equipment, and services necessary to furnish and install trees, landscaping, and an irrigation system at the project location, per the project plans, and in accordance with all applicable FDOT guidelines. Please see attached plans and proposed landscape material for reference.

The Work includes delivery, installation grow-in period maintenance (for installed trees and landscaping), and initial irrigation testing and maintenance as applicable to the project. The warranty requires replacement of landscape installation that does not survive the one year warranty period.

The ITB was advertised in the Miami Daily Business Review, on DemandStar, on the Town's website, and in the Government Center Lobby. Procurement notified twenty five (25) Prospective Bidders of the solicitation by email and reached five hundred ninety seven (597) suppliers through DemandStar.

Prospective Bidders were required to possess a minimum of three (3) years of experience performing landscape and irrigation installation projects; provide verifiable client references demonstrating successful completion of at least three (3) landscape and irrigation installation projects with a total project amount of $100,000 or more performed within the last three (3) years; be properly registered with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Division of plant industry; be a certified landscape contractor by the Florida nursery, growers, and landscape association; be a certified arborist by the International Society of Arboriculture; and be able to utilize the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's E-Verify system for employment verification.

On December 5, 2016, the Town held a bid opening and received three (3) bids from the following bidders:
1. SFM Services, Inc. for $124,607.94;
2. Arazoza Brothers Corporation for $150,000.00; and
3. VisualScape, Inc. for $160,220.00

In its due diligence review, Procurement determined that each bidder meets the minimum qualifications required in the ITB. Based on SFM being determined to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, Procurement recommended awarding contract 2017-09 to SFM Services, Inc.

With the lowest bid totaling $124,607.94, which is $75,392.06 under the grant project amount, the Town was concerned how the low bid would affect the grant funding for this project. After reaching out to the Florida Highway Beautification Council, the Town was advised that the difference between the low bid and the grant project amount is deducted from the Town's match, reducing the Town's contribution to $24,607.94, while the funding provided by Florida Department of Transportation would remain at the full amount, in this case $100,000.

The annual maintenance cost of these enhancements is approximately $7,000 per year with funding coming from the right of way maintenance line item in the general fund.