The City of Allen has been utilizing a contract for Playground Safety Surface Materials since 2014. Previously staff procured multiple large loads of playground
surfacing material which was delivered to open bulk storage at the
Municipal Service Center. As one or more playground(s) required new
surfacing material, staff would then haul the material to the playground
site(s) and then contract the labor to disperse the material throughout
each installation to City specifications. This three-step process
required the activation of a Park Technician and Park Maintenance Worker
and on a monthly basis displaced them from the continual backlog of
routine and specialty work orders to be filled. The need arose to restructure how the
maintenance of our 40-plus playgrounds is handled.
This approach to providing a single source of material delivery and
labor has proven to be more efficient and allows staff to address the myriad of other
tasks that most often require their technical expertise.
Local Government Code, Chapter 271.102, authorizes a local government to participate in a cooperative purchasing program with another local government or a local cooperative organization. The Texas Local Government Code permits cooperative agreements between local governments for the purchase of goods and services and satisfies the requirement of local governments to seek competitive bids for purchase of such goods and services through supplier contracts.
It was determined to be in the best interest to utilize the BuyBoard Cooperative Purchasing Agreement to obtain competitive pricing to purchase the playground safety surface materials from Soil Express, the City of Allen's current provider.