Black contractor says Mishawaka has shut him out
David and Beverly Jackson of Rochester are blaming racism for their inability to bid on additional demolition projects related to the North Main Street underpass in Mishawaka.
Their company, Jackson Services, submitted the low bid Feb. 13 to demolish the first five houses for the project. They received the contract and will start the work Tuesday morning.
But the Jacksons are angry about the way they say their company has been shut out of bidding for additional work related to the underpass.
"It's clear discrimination,'' David Jackson said. "They're not going to let us bid because we're black.''
City Engineer Gary West said that's not the case.
Jackson Services, he said, has never done work for Mishawaka before. He said he wants an opportunity to gauge its performance on the first round of demolition before deciding whether the firm can submit quotes for more work.
"It doesn't add up," said Beverly Jackson, David's mother. "When you put up a performance bond, that's all he needs."
David Jackson said the firm has been around for 40 years without a complaint against it. The Better Business Bureau confirmed that it has no complaints on file against Jackson Services.
The company did a lot of demolition work long ago in downtown South Bend and was involved in clearing out parts of the city's southeast side, David Jackson said.
"We didn't come up fly by night,'' he said.
Jackson Services got the initial contract in Mishawaka because it was the low bidder, Beverly Jackson said. Now the city won't even let it submit a bid for additional work, she said.
David Jackson said he inquired about when other bids would be let but claimed Mishawaka officials gave vague answers. Then he found out that bids were opened March 13 for the demolition of the former Mishawaka Transmission Inc. building, just north of the railroad tracks.
The city likely will award a bid Tuesday to Ritschard Brothers Inc. for that work. It was the lower of two bids.
The Jacksons visited Mishawaka City Hall on Friday, they said, to inquire about future work. The city engineer's office refused to give them a bid packet, they said.
Because each phase of the project will be less than $75,000, West said, the city is taking quotes instead of formal bids.
Jackson Services is supposed to be substantially done with the first demolitions by April 17 and completely done by the end of the month, West said.
If it can't bid until after that, David Jackson said, "everything should be bidded out by then."
West said the demolition is being done block by block, with five more blocks left to be bid out. Jackson Services will have time to bid on those, he said.
The city has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday morning to launch the demolition work, and David Jackson said he is supposed to be part of it.
But because of the way he has been treated, he said, he doesn't think he will participate.
"I will do the job I was paid to do,'' he said, "but that's about it."
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