Commissioners open bids for prison food service contract

Hopefully, the second time will be the charm for the food service contract at the Carbon County Correctional Facility.

On Thursday, the county commissioners opened bids for the three-year food service contract.

Trinity Services Group Inc. of Oldsmar, the current contract holder, submitted the lowest apparent bid for the three-year contract totaling an estimated $1,037,238.44. The bid is $160,889.54 higher than the last bid they submitted in June that was rejected. The bid is based on serving meals to approximately 232 inmates three times a day.

It breaks down to $1.33 per meal for the first year, $1.3566 per meal for the second year and $1.3905 per meal for the third year.

Carbon County is paying $1.369 per meal on a month-to-month basis with Trinity, which took over prison food operations in August 2013 after the county looked at outsourcing the kitchen service rather than hosting it in-house, after the contract expired in July.

A second bid was received from Summit Food Services LLC of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which came in at a per meal cost of $1.547 the first year, $1.593 the second year and $1.629 the third year.

The county then tabled the bid for three weeks so it could be inspected to make sure it meets all requirements this time.

“We hope they comply with the instructions,” county solicitor Daniel Miscavige said Thursday, “Last time, the base bid might have been lower but there were contingencies added in that weren’t reflected. Hopefully they were compliant this time.”

In July, the county rejected the bids after officials reviewed the language in the bid and found that there was alternative pricing that should have not been included.

In another prison related matter, the county approved an agreement with the Carbon-Monroe-Pike and Drug and Alcohol Commission in Lehighton to provide drug and alcohol treatment counseling services for the inmate population at the Carbon County Correctional Facility from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2020, at a cost of $54,000, which is paid through the prison commissary fund.