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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRFI - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - 8012 PARKS IRRIGATION CONTROLLERRFI 8012 Parks Irrigation Controller Page 1 of 8 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 8012 PARKS IRRIGATION CONTROLLER The City of Fort Collins is requesting qualified organizations, companies, vendors, manufacturers or other entities to submit information on irrigation controllers for the City of Fort Collins Parks Division. Proposals submission via email is preferred. Proposals shall be submitted in Microsoft Word or PDF format and e-mailed to: purchasing@fcgov.com. If electing to submit hard copy proposals instead, six (6) copies, will be received at the City of Fort Collins' Purchasing Division, 215 North Mason St., 2nd floor, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524. Proposals will be received before 3:00 p.m. (our clock), October 17, 2014 and referenced as Proposal No. 8012. If delivered, they are to be sent to 215 North Mason Street, 2 nd Floor, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524. If mailed, the address is P.O. Box 580, Fort Collins, 80522-0580. RFI’s shall not exceed 40 pages total (including attachments). The City encourages all disadvantaged business enterprises to submit proposals in response to all requests for proposals and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, national origin for all proposals for negotiated agreements. Questions concerning the scope of the project should be directed to Project Manager, Jill Wuertz at (970) 416-2062 or jwuertz@fcgov.com. Questions regarding bid submittal or process should be directed to John Stephen, CPPO, LEED AP, Senior Buyer at (970) 221-6777 or jstephen@fcgov.com. Questions must be received by 5:00 p.m. (our clock) on October 9, 2014, Responses to all questions submitted will be documented in an addendum provided to all respondents and posted on the webpage. A copy of the Proposal may be obtained as follows: 1. Download the Proposal/Bid from the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System webpage, www.rockymountainbidsystem.com The City of Fort Collins is subject to public information laws, which permit access to most records and documents. Proprietary information in your response must be clearly identified and will be protected to the extent legally permissible. Proposals may not be marked ‘Proprietary’ in their entirety. Information considered proprietary is limited to Financial Services Purchasing Division 215 N. Mason St. 2nd Floor PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6775 970.221.6707 fcgov.com/purchasing RFI 8012 Parks Irrigation Controller Page 2 of 8 material treated as confidential in the normal conduct of business, trade secrets, discount information, and individual product or service pricing. Summary price information may not be designated as proprietary as such information may be carried forward into other public documents. All provisions of any contract resulting from this request for proposal will be public information. Sales Prohibited/Conflict of Interest: No officer, employee, or member of City Council, shall have a financial interest in the sale to the City of any real or personal property, equipment, material, supplies or services where such officer or employee exercises directly or indirectly any decision-making authority concerning such sale or any supervisory authority over the services to be rendered. This rule also applies to subcontracts with the City. Soliciting or accepting any gift, gratuity favor, entertainment, kickback or any items of monetary value from any person who has or is seeking to do business with the City of Fort Collins is prohibited. Collusive or sham proposals: Any proposal deemed to be collusive or a sham proposal will be rejected and reported to authorities as such. Your authorized signature of this proposal assures that such proposal is genuine and is not a collusive or sham proposal. The City of Fort Collins reserves the right to reject any and all proposals and to waive any irregularities or informalities. Sincerely, Gerry S. Paul Director of Purchasing & Risk Management RFI 8012 Parks Irrigation Controller Page 3 of 8 8012 RFI Parks Irrigation Controller Project OVERVIEW The City of Fort Collins is requesting qualified vendors, manufacturers or other entities to submit information on irrigation controllers for the Parks Division. The City is seeking information regarding irrigation controllers that meet the specific needs of the City of Fort Collins Parks Division as outlined in this document. The goals of this RFI are to gather information on specific product lines, current and near future technologies and the industry in general to determine the feasibility of creating a preferred product line(s) for the Parks Division and a good general understanding of the range of products currently in the marketplace. This is not a solicitation for products or services. Information gathered may result in issuance of a future Request for Proposals (RFP). Information submitted in response to this RFI will be submitted voluntarily with the understanding that this RFI is for information gathering purposes only; this is not a RFP, formal solicitation, or commitment by the City to award a contract or contracts. The City is not liable for any costs incurred by responders for the submission of responses to this RFI. All materials included in the proposal become the property of the City of Fort Collins and will not be returned to the applicant. Any restrictions on the use of data contained with a submission must be clearly stated in the submission. SOLICITATION OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION In responding to this RFI parties are requested to describe their irrigation controller product line operation, costs and general company overview. The response should include the following information and consider the unique circumstances of the Fort Collins Parks Division as detailed in this document. Multiple product lines, such as standalone controllers as well as centrally controlled products, may be submitted. 1) Checklist a) Product information i) Complete questions in Table 1.1 ii) Pamphlets, manuals, etc. on product line. b) Costs i) Provide list of product line costs for various sized controllers smallest capacity through largest capacity based on local vendor. ii) Provide list of product line costs for associated equipment to ensure proper design, installation and maintenance of controllers. c) Company or organization overview i) Structure of organization ii) Years in business RFI 8012 Parks Irrigation Controller Page 4 of 8 iii) Development of product line history and near future developments of interest 2) Format a) Submittal format must have all information combined in one pdf. b) Submittal not to exceed 40 pages. c) If submitting on multiple product lines, such as standalone controllers and central controllers, each additional product line should be no more than 10 pages and it is acceptable to exceed the 40 page limit. ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION 2013 Acres Controller Count Parks 1069 77 Trails 130 - Medians 68 ~100 Downtown Public Spaces & Facilities 83 75 TOTAL 1,350 ~252 The City of Fort Collins Parks Division maintains over 1,350 acres of land in parks, trails, medians and public spaces and facilities. Approximately 80-percent of Parks developed acreage utilizes raw water, while the remaining 20-percent is potable. Raw water costs typically average around $42,000 while potable costs typically average around $250,000 annually. This combination of raw water to potable water usage (80/20) creates a unique water management scenario. The City’s Water Conservation Plan lays out expansion of water conservation measures for both residential and commercial customers. The Parks Division complies with this plan by targeting irrigation at or under 90% of evapotranspiration (ET) rates. Water management is controlled by Park Technicians with the park system. There is not a centralized management of irrigation. Currently, the Parks Division utilizes over 250 controllers for water management over this acreage. The majority of these controllers are standalone units of various brands (Hunter, Irritrol, Rainbird, TBoss, Toro). Controller capacity typically is below 48 stations due to the size and configuration of zones within the parks, trails, medians and public spaces and facilities. Exceptions to this, however, are located within community parks which make up over 400 acres of the total 1,350 acres of the park system. Central control is utilized in six different park locations and split between the Toro Sentinel product line and the Motorola product line. The system currently contains weather stations at their Fossil Creek shop and Spring Canyon shop. Medians is currently using Rainbird Central Control at a few newer locations. The Fort Collins community and their park system is an expanding system. It is understood that the Parks Division will increase maintenance acreage by an additional 325 acres over the next 15 years. RFI 8012 Parks Irrigation Controller Page 5 of 8 The Fort Collins Parks Division is looking to standardize irrigation controllers within 1-2 different product lines. Cost effectiveness is a major goal for this conversion. It is unknown whether an entire central control line will be installed within the park system or if it will be a combination of central control and standalone controllers. The following table shows a list of key features that has been prioritized by City of Fort Collins Parks Division staff. Use this list as a checklist to ensure an accurate and complete technical summary of product line. Please include graphics where necessary to support responses. Table 1.1 Key Features Desired Response Content may include: Strong customer support commitment from manufacturer Respond in 1500 characters or less including spaces Product support responsiveness. If local, how many miles from Fort Collins. If not local, how does communication occur to resolve issues quickly? Software is user friendly Respond in 1500 characters or less including spaces The software shall allow users to view and/or override any changes made at irrigation controllers. The user can identify who accessed any field unit, what was done. The software shall allow all program data, log data, summary data and alert data for each controller to be easily readable. Able to selectively print by controller. All reports must be exportable into either Adobe PDF format for Microsoft Excel format. Capable of using weather station data Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces Specific brands that are compatible. Is cost effective for number of zones Respond in 3000 characters or less including spaces Local distributor and support representative in Fort Collins area Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces Local distributor within how many miles of City of Fort Collins. RFI 8012 Parks Irrigation Controller Page 6 of 8 including spaces of sensor boards, decoders, or other pieces of equipment? How many flow meter inputs are available? List recommended flow sensors compatible with product line. Controller available with 48 or more stations, conventional wiring Respond in 1500 characters or less including spaces Provide information on product line maximum number of stations. ET-based programming. Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces How is ET input? Data from a subscription service or manually loaded? Costs associated. Cellular communication to central available Yes/No Can run more than 4 programs Yes/No Supports flexible flow management, bypass systems, overflow limits Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces When an alert, such as High Flow is indicated on the controller, the station with the High Flow shall still have an option to come on and then shut off, rather than having the alert keep the station off until someone clears the alert from the central computer or at the field controller. Supports multiple master valves Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces How many and what brands. Provides customized software and hardware solution per FC Parks input Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces Can software/hardware be customized? RFI 8012 Parks Irrigation Controller Page 7 of 8 Tracks multiple flows separately per flow sensor Yes/No Software includes flow optimization feature Yes/No Soil moisture option available Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces What additional products are necessary for soil moisture sensing? Has record of successful use in similar cities List Include list of up to 10 similar users with contact information for each organization listed Web-based software option is available. Respond in 1500 characters or less including spaces Accessible from any web-enabled PC, laptop running at least Internet Explorer version 8, or web-enabled tablet based system? Is a true mobile application available? Software and controller include multi-level password protection Yes/No Does software provide user specific change history reports showing station and field specific changes and details on who made changes? Proprietary matching equipment Respond in 1500 characters or less including spaces Frequency of Software updates to computer/controllers Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces Are future software upgrades and enhancements to the central control software provided to the end user at no charge for the warranty period of the controller? What about after warranty period? Alerts Respond in 500 characters or less RFI 8012 Parks Irrigation Controller Page 8 of 8 c. Main line breaks during scheduled irrigation as well as all other times when flow exceeds user set parameters. d. Manual watering and manual operation by station and time in the field controller. e. Current (amperage) alarms by station and time, both high and low, and output shorts due to solenoid failure. Water Budget management features Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces Does the software have a water budget management feature that allows the user to set up target water budgets and then track performance against those budgets using real time flow data, estimated flow data and allow for water bill data entry? Does the software alert the user when the controllers’ water usage is more than the user set water budget? EPA WaterSense Approved Yes/No Training Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces Does the manufacturer/vendor provide training on product use, maintenance and/or installation? Warranty Respond in 500 characters or less including spaces How many years is product under warranty? Is there an extended warranty? Manufacturer/Vendor would be willing to make a presentation on product line to City of Fort Collins Parks Division staff. Yes/No Contact for scheduling presentation. including spaces Does the software report alarm conditions on the following: a. Communication failures and successes (identifies type of problem, time, and location). b. High or excessive, low flow and no flow conditions with the time (AM/PM) of the occurrence for each individual valve. Includes on-site satellite to satellite communication Yes/No 2-wire capable Yes/No Ethernet/WiFi communication to central Yes/No Supports multiple flow sensors Respond in 500 characters or less What is the built-in capacity for sensing flow without the addition