Hamilton County Commissioners declined Wednesday to approve a bid submitted by Kone Inc. for renovations to three elevators after learning that specs on the project were changed after the original bid came in too high.

Less than $200,000 had been allocated for the project, officials said, so staffers scrambled to find ways to reduce costs after the only acceptable bid came in far higher than that.

Originally, they noted, bid specs required that the winning bidder assign two shifts of workers to the project.

By eliminating that requirement and allowing a single shift, they were able to reduce the cost by almost $31,000.

Commissioners had no quarrel with making the change. But now that it has been made, they said, the project should be readvertised so additional firms have the opportunity to bid on it.

“It’s a totally different bid,” Commissioner Fred Skillern argued. “Bidders often have only a small number of workers in Chattanooga, so they cannot meet a requirement that they work two shifts. But they could work one shift – and maybe save us a lot of money.”

County Finance Director Louis Wright said bid notifications were mailed directly to six vendors, in addition to advertising the project in area publications.

Only two bids were submitted, he said, and under Tennessee law one of those had to be rejected because the applicant neglected to include its state contractor number.

Kone Inc. submitted the only complying bid, Mr. Wright said.

“I’m wondering how this one vendor is going to respond if we rebid the project,” he said.

But Commissioner Skillern and other commissioners said they believe that once modifications were made to the original requirements, the legally correct thing to do is rebid the project so all interested parties can submit proposals.

“Anytime we only get one bid, we need to look hard at it,” Commissioner Skillern said. “I wonder sometimes if the way the specs are written, only one vendor can meet them.”

In other action, commissioners declined to approve staff-recommended changes in rental fees at Chester Frost Park.

It costs $31 per site per day to operate the park, officials said, so every time a senior citizen rents a site for the current $10-per-day fee, the county loses $21.

That means Hamilton County taxpayers – including many who never use Chester Frost Park – are subsidizing campers who rent spaces there.

“I don’t think any of us want a tax increase this year,” one declared, as other commissioners nodded in agreement.

But a delegation from Chester Frost Park said that although they agree that fees at the park should be raised, they believe the proposed increase to $14 per day for senior citizens is so high many senior citizens on fixed incomes will not be able to afford it.

Rather than significantly increase senior rental charges, they suggested, the county should raise rental rates for everybody who does not live in Hamilton County by a whopping 35 percent.

“It’s a lot warmer here than it is in Ohio and other places up north,” one said. “We can take advantage of that.”

However, a Sale Creek resident told commissioners it is unfair to give senior citizens a break on rental fees while increasing costs for everybody else.

Although he is not yet 65, he said, “I’ve had a heart attack and six bypasses . . . I can’t work. I’d like to have a senior discount, too.”

Commissioner Skillern said he believes the best way to set rental fees at the park is to peg them to rental fees in Tennessee state parks.

“Right now our rates are considerably cheaper than the state’s,” he said. “Maybe we could set them at 80 percent or 90 percent of what the state charges.”

But the increases should be incremental, he added.

“It’s a whole lot easier to raise rates a little bit at a time,” Commissioner Skillern said. “I would much rather go up $1 per day every year for four or five years, than go up $4 to $5 in one year.”

Commissioners agreed to reconsider the issue at their agenda session on Thursday, March 26. In the meantime, they said, they will have to time to research current fees charged in Tennessee state parks and other related matters.