After a careful, tedious debate regarding choosing a construction manager at risk for the DeWitt School of Nursing project, the SFA regents unanimously agreed to award the bid to J.E. Dunn South Central Inc. of Dallas during a special regents meeting Friday.

SFA received numerous bids for the project, and a committee selected three finalists, which were J.E. Dunn South Central, J.E. Kingham Construction Company of Nacogdoches, and WRL General Contracts LTD of Flint.

Dunn South Central Inc. was chosen as the primary construction manager and J.E. Kingham Construction Company was chosen as the secondary construction manager.

But the decision resulted from the second motion made on the project.

The first motion

A first motion that listed J.E. Kingham as the primary and Dunn South Central as the secondary eventually failed because of a split vote.

Board of Regents Chairman Joe Max Green recused himself from voting on any building and grounds committee items, because of what he described as a "conflict of interest."

"Some of the people we discussed are clients of mine, so I felt it was best that if I didn't get involved in any way," Green said.

Regents James Dickerson, Bob Garrett, Paul Pond and James Thompson originally voted for the motion, while Regents Carlos Amaral, Richard Boyer, Melvin White and Valerie Ertz voted against the motion.

During the discussion regarding the first motion, some regents were concerned with what they termed as "using the same players," while others were concerned with overall cost.

However, the bid from Dunn South Central came in at $400,000 more than the bid from J.E. Kingham. The bid submitted by WRL General Contracts was the least expensive overall.

J.E. Kingham has worked on many SFA projects, including the Baker Pattillo Student Center, Student Recreation Center and the Human Services Building.

Because J.E. Kingham is currently the construction manager at risk for the SFA Education Research Center, Ertz said she thinks the company should focus on that project instead of "juggling between the two."

"I think it's very healthy for us as a university to have fresh blood and new people come in," Ertz said.

Boyer said he chose Dunn, because they had the most recent work record on a nursing facility.

Some regents also expressed concern over repeatedly awarding bids to the same company, and that SFA does not receive as many project bids because of that.

On the other hand, Garrett said J.E. Kingham was the "lowest-risk contractor" that they could pick.

"They have worked wonderfully with the university," Garrett said.

Because Turner Construction Company is SFA's project manager, Bill Chriswell served on the bid committee.

"I do feel that all three (companies) could do the job," Chriswell said.

Regent Thompson said he could "see both sides" as to why someone would vote for either J.E. Kingham or Dunn South Central.

"Both Kingham and Dunn are parallel," Thompson said.

However, Thompson also added that he did not think Dunn South Central would lower their fees to match those of J.E. Kingham.

"I don't think realistically they would change their fee by $400,000," Thompson said.

The unanimous vote

In the motion, SFA administrators were given two weeks to negotiate with Dunn South Central regarding their fees.

If the company does not choose to lower its fees, the bid will instead be awarded to J.E. Kingham.

Student center repairs

SFA regents convened in a lengthy executive session to discuss repairs that need to be made to the Baker Pattillo Student Center, but a decision was not made Friday.

In March, regents were told that the newly renovated student center needs about $2 million in repairs to replace the heating and air conditioning system in the older part of the building, as well as the atrium doors in the newer part of the building.

SFA solicited bids for the repairs and only received one from J.E. Kingham Construction Company, which was for $2.9 million, according to Andy Kesling, executive director of marketing.

"They (regents) are still evaluating (the repairs), and have not reached a decision," Kesling said.

Regents also approved additional curriculum changes for 2008-2009 academic school year.