The board that governs the three state universities met via telephone today and approved emergency measures to allow the University of Iowa to speed up the process of making flood repairs. University officials say some 20 major facilities on the Iowa City campus were flooded by the Iowa River.
University vice president of finance, Doug True, told the Board of Regents that they need to make quick repairs to residence halls and the support systems. True says the need to make sure their utility system is up and reliable by winter, as they don’t now have a reliable system.
True says the emergency measures allow the university to use contractors that were already approved for other projects without having to start a new bid process for the flood work. He cites one example of a contract they’re working on to get moving on the mechanical contract for the Mayflower Residence hall so its 1,000 beds will be ready for student use by August 15th.
True says some of the contracts will be for a few thousand dollars, and others will be much more. True told boardmembers the emergency rules have one goal. True says they’re intended to make sure they "can compromise between moving as quickly as possible, and getting fairness and competition whenever possible in the system, and deviating as little as possible from the normal system."
The Regents also voted to ask the legislature to put them on a list of agencies that could declare an emergency and suspend normal bid procedures instead of waiting for a proclamation from the governor.