WCMessenger.com: Inside Wise

It sounded like it was too good to be true.

As it turned out, it was.

Just last week, Toromont of Fort Worth won the heating and air conditioning maintenance contract for Wise County, beating out Mann Refrigeration of Bridgeport in the competitive bid process as required by state law.

The two companies were the only bidders.

The difference between the two came down to the replacement price for parts.

Toromont said it would charge just 10 percent over its wholesale cost.

Mann, who had been the maintenance provider for the county prior to the bid process this year, said its parts would be priced using a .65 diviser.

Under that formula, a $100 part would cost slightly more than $150. A $300 part would cost $461.

Commissioners were dismayed. They admitted they had gotten good service from Mann. They even gave owner Robert Mann a chance to explain his bid - an opportunity they also gave the sales rep from Toromont.

Mann wasn't upset about the competition. He simply said he had given the best bid he could and still make a decent profit for his company.

So, when it came down to a vote, commissioners grudgingly - and properly - awarded the bid to the Fort Worth company,

According to Precinct 3 Commissioner Mike Richardson, the very next day Toromont's sales rep was fired, the crew of heating and air conditioning specialists laid off and the doors were closed on the Fort Worth office.

Robert Mann is now back servicing the county's air conditioning units.

While the "too good to be true" axiom certainly was accurate, at least the fiasco didn't hurt the county's taxpayers.

-----

Decatur High School journalism teacher Cindy Berry passed on the following e-mail from Marci Dickens, publications adviser, in Livingston.

It was about Cody Duty, who graduated last year after serving as editor of the school's newspaper, The West Thompson Street Journal.

"I attended the Gloria Shields Workshop last week in Dallas and had the pleasure of meeting your student, Cody. He was helping in a photo class where I had two students, one of which was a special needs child, and he was absolutely a delight to talk to and watch work with the students in the class. I also had two of my adult chaperones, one who shadowed our special needs child to make sure he was keeping up with the class and one who took the class. They both have commented many times since we got back on how wonderful Cody was and that they were impressed with his maturity and care for people. He always went the extra mile with our special needs child and I appreciate that as well. All of the students and adults who worked with Cody walked away better than they came."

Cody, who is also a photographer for the Wise County Messenger, is the son of Joe and Julie Duty of Decatur. Joe is our chief photographer at the Messenger.

Incidentally, Cody leaves for college in two weeks. He's going to attend Western Kentucky University, which has the reputation for having the best photojournalism program in the U.S.