Notice if intent to negotiate a sole source contract for Preventative Maintenance.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) intends to negotiate a sole source contract with Utah State University (USU) located in Logan, Utah, for the preventative maintenance of the controls system as well as the miscellaneous HVAC, plumber, carpenter, electrical, waste management, distribution, gas demur, and network computing services, that support the USDA-ARS Forage and Range Research Laboratory (FRRL). The FRRL Building is located on the campus of USU and therefore FRRL is dependent on USU services in this campus setting. The FRRL building's HVAC system is overseen and maintained by USU. USU supplies steam energy from the USU centralized plant system. USU also controls and operates the FRRL HVAC system and controls. The direct connection to the operation, maintenance, and function of the above equipment to the USU utilities and building management systems creates the need to negotiate a sole source award for the procurement action described above. This is a notice of intent and is not a request for competitive quotations or proposals. No solicitation is available. Firms that believe they can provide these services are encouraged to identify themselves and provide a substantive statement with descriptive literature and any other supporting information to the Contracting Officer within 15 days of publication of this notice. All information received within 15 days of publication of this synopsis will be considered by the Government to determine if the more than one firm can meet the Government's requirements and is capable of performing the intended task(s). All responses must be in writing and may be faxed to the attention of James Wiltse, fax 970-492-1731, or emailed at [email protected]. Questions concerning this acquisition must be directed to James Wiltse at the above contact information. Anticipated Date of Award 10/1/2013 This procurement requires the use of biobased products to the extent that such products are reasonably available, meet agency or relevant industry performance standards, and are reasonably priced. Where available, these products should first be acquired from among qualified products that fall under the umbrella of items designated through the USDA BioPreferred SM Program.