At its Feb. 17 meeting, the Green Park Board of Aldermen voted to open up bidding for a new company to do snow removal and landscaping for the city. The current company, Beishir Landscape Maintenance, has serviced Green Park since 2014.
“We’ve had some challenges with Beishir,” city clerk Theresa Pfyl said. “(President Jason Beishir) has come in a few times, whether it’s overbilling or lack of billing, his lack of accepting work orders or providing work orders.”
Beishir will receive a 30-day notice from the city that they are exploring other options. The board opened a Request for Proposals (RFP), soliciting bids from other vendors and contractors. Potential vendors may choose to bid on snow removal and landscaping or choose one service to bid on, based on their capacity and expertise.
“In the past, when we did combine them, we got a lot of negative response because a lot of companies just did one or the other,” Ward 1 Alderman Michael Broughton said. “There were not too many out there that did both. That was years ago. We tried to combine, but got very little response, so we had to go out to bid separately to get good bids.”
City attorney Paul Rost added, “It would be great to have one company or business do both, but you may not get that.”
The contract with Beishir was last amended in 2024. Previously, in 2022, Green Park only received two bids — one being Beishir, with a price increase. The other was Loyet Landscape Maintenance. At the time, Beishir had the lower bid by 4%, though the bid was $5 to $10 higher on hourly rate than it had previously charged.
Pfyl explains that the city has been satisfied with Beishir’s snow removal side of the contract, “even though pricing has been a little on the higher end.” She says the work order part of the contract has been “tricky” to put into practice, which is part of the reason the city is soliciting bids.
“This isn’t about any negative feelings toward the current contractor,” Pfyl said. “We appreciate the work they’ve done, and they’re absolutely welcome to bid again. We just want to make sure we’re being responsible with taxpayer dollars and taking a fresh look at the market, something we do from time to time anyway.”
Beishir did not respond to requests for comment by The Call’s press time. It is currently unknown whether the company will bid again. More information will be disseminated as it becomes available.
