With over 120 acres of green space and a continuous effort to keep these areas growing beautifully, one of the ongoing needs for our parks and roadways is sod and sod installation to support this effort. Currently, the Town may purchase sod through additional line items on its general Grounds Maintenance and Athletic Field Maintenance contracts, however, this pricing is higher than buying sod directly from sod farms. In the past, the Town has accessed a Southeast Florida Governmental Cooperative Group (“COOP”) contract to obtain significant savings on the price of sod. That contract expired last fall and subsequently, the COOP issued another solicitation and recently awarded a new contract for sod and sod installation services.
In August 2018, the COOP, comprised of forty–five (45) agencies, intending to leverage the buying power of multiple agencies for a cost savings, underwent a competitive procurement process and awarded contracts to Mullings Engineering Services, Inc. (“Mullings”) and Sunset Sod Inc. (“Sunset”) for the purchase of sod and sod installation services. Currently, the Town uses approximately 15,000 square feet of sod for the maintenance of the athletic fields. Having access to these contracts gives the Town the flexibility to access the most competitive pricing per sod type for regular maintenance as well as for restoration efforts after upcoming projects such as the Royal Oaks Drainage project and the West Lakes Drainage project severely impact greenspaces. A summary of the pricing available on each contract is listed in the chart below.
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Type of Sod
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COOP Contract Price (Mullings)
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COOP Contract Price (Sunset)
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GreenSource Landscape & Sports Turf, Inc.
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BrightView Landscape Services, Inc.
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SFM Services, Inc.
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Superior Landscaping & Lawn Service, Inc.
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VisualScape, Inc.
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St. Augustine
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$0.59
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$1.05
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$0.85
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$0.90
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$0.45
|
$0.84
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$1.25
|
|
Bermuda
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$0.48
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$0.80
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$1.00
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$1.34
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N/A
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N/A
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N/A
|
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Seashore Paspalum
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$3.00
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$2.05
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$1.56
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$1.95
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N/A
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N/A
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N/A
|
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Bahia Grass
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$0.28
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$0.58
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$0.85
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$0.65[NG1]
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$0.45
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$0.76
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$0.95
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* Unit of Measure = Price/Square foot including sod and installation
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[NG1]These two prices are from the 2017-23 Contract. I'm not sure if I should include them?
Approval of this agreement for future enhancements will provide the Town an alternative to current contract pricing with the ability to purchase sod directly through the COOP contract whenever funds are available for this purpose. After reviewing the contracts and their pricing terms, it is recommended that the Town access and “piggyback” this Contract as allowed under Section 7 of the Procurement Code for the direct purchase of sod and sod installation.