$786K contract signed for a/c system for sports complex
The government has signed a contract with Quality Air Condition & Refrigeration for the procurement, installation and commissioning of the heat, ventilation and air condition system at the Multipurpose Sports Complex in Road Town.
Quality Air Condition won the $786,000 contract in what Sports Minister Dr Natalio Wheatley described as a transparent tender process. Dr Wheatley used the contractual signing to acknowledge the owner of the company, Kelvin Thomas who he described as someone committed to the development of the Virgin Islands.
Wheatley said Thomas has been helping the sports complex with AC and ventilation from the time the facility was impacted by the 2017 hurricanes.
“I have to acknowledge the contractor. What you may not know is that when the AC was not functioning, he would come in here and rig up things to get it working. When he could not do it any more and everything collapsed on us; we had to rent a unit and I believed it came from Puerto Rico,” Wheatley said.
“Through this contractor, we were able to use this rented unit for free at the expiration of our contract. We wanted to use it for a few more events and of course this is a very popular venue for events and through the contractor, we were able to secure a good many few weeks of free AC to the people of the Virgin Islands,” the Deputy Premier added.
Meanwhile, Thomas thanked the government and the Recreational Trust for the opportunity to work on the project. He noted it was a long-time coming and he is grateful his company was selected to carry out the task.
“The tender process was a very intense one and I cannot remember being through such an intense one before. But one of the things that we did was engage the original manufacturers of the chillers to guide us through the process and we did that because we felt that if we were successful, we wanted to deliver an equipment that was at a high standard. We believe that it is important that our client get value for money,” Thomas said.
“Now the equipment will take about three months to build. It’s not just sitting there and we pay for it and ship it. It has to be built and whoever is managing it will be able to access it remotely anytime they choose. Whether they are in Anegada or off-island, they can monitor the system. It will be highly efficient to help to cut down on the electricity bill they incur here,” the owner of Quality Air Conditioning said.
Wheatley said Thomas has been helping the sports complex with AC and ventilation from the time the facility was impacted by the 2017 hurricanes.
“I have to acknowledge the contractor. What you may not know is that when the AC was not functioning, he would come in here and rig up things to get it working. When he could not do it any more and everything collapsed on us; we had to rent a unit and I believed it came from Puerto Rico,” Wheatley said.
“Through this contractor, we were able to use this rented unit for free at the expiration of our contract. We wanted to use it for a few more events and of course this is a very popular venue for events and through the contractor, we were able to secure a good many few weeks of free AC to the people of the Virgin Islands,” the Deputy Premier added.
Meanwhile, Thomas thanked the government and the Recreational Trust for the opportunity to work on the project. He noted it was a long-time coming and he is grateful his company was selected to carry out the task.
“The tender process was a very intense one and I cannot remember being through such an intense one before. But one of the things that we did was engage the original manufacturers of the chillers to guide us through the process and we did that because we felt that if we were successful, we wanted to deliver an equipment that was at a high standard. We believe that it is important that our client get value for money,” Thomas said.
“Now the equipment will take about three months to build. It’s not just sitting there and we pay for it and ship it. It has to be built and whoever is managing it will be able to access it remotely anytime they choose. Whether they are in Anegada or off-island, they can monitor the system. It will be highly efficient to help to cut down on the electricity bill they incur here,” the owner of Quality Air Conditioning said.
