LED project for city hall agreed upon without following standard public bidding procedure

A new LED lighting project for La Crosse’s city hall is exceptional in a couple of ways.

First, the city appears poised to benefit from federal and state grants in turning what would be a $112,000 project into a $34,000 project.

At least that’s the working assumption for the project approved by the city’s Board of Public Works this week.

In the process, all of the lighting would be changed to efficient LEDs.

The board has also agreed to the proposal from Viroqua-based E3 Lighting without requesting any other bids on the project.

Generally, municipal projects that exceed $25,000, by state law, have to get bid out with the contract generally awarded to the lowest bidder.

No clear answer yet from city hall on why this project might be considered exempt from those standard bidding procedures.