Pavement Marking and Striping Various Roads, Various Municipalities The contractor shall maintain all documentation related to products, transactions or services under this contract for a period of five years from the date of final payment. Such records shall be available to the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller upon request. Bidder shall submit with the bid a certified check, cashiers check or bid bond in the amount of ten percent (10%) of the total price bid, but not in excess of $20,000, payable unconditionally to the County. Successful bidder shall simultaneously with the delivery of the executed contract, submit an executed bond in the amount of one hundred percent (100%) of the acceptable bid as security for the faithful performance of this contract. No oral interpretation of the meaning of the specifications will be made to any bidder. Every request for an interpretation shall be in writing, addressed to the Purchasing Agent, referencing the Contract Name and Contract Number in the subject line, at PurchasingDiv@co.somerset.nj.us. In order to be given consideration, written requests for interpretation and or clarification must be received at last three (3) business days prior to the date fixed for the opening of the bids. All interpretations, clarifications and any supplemental instructions will be in the form of written addenda to the specifications, and will be distributed to all prospective bidders. All addenda so issued shall become part of the specification and bid documents, and shall be acknowledged by the bidder by completing the Acknowledgement of Receipt of Addenda form. The Countys interpretations or corrections thereof shall be final. The successful bidder shall with the delivery for the performance bond submit an executed payment bond to guarantee payment to laborers and suppliers for the labor and material used in the work performed under the contract. Failure to submit a labor and material bond with the performance bond shall be cause for declaring the contract null and void. Question Deadline 01/25/2024 No oral interpretation of the meaning of the specifications will be made to any bidder. Every request for an interpretation shall be in writing, addressed to the Purchasing Agent, referencing the Contract Name and Contract Number in the subject line, at PurchasingDiv@co.somerset.nj.us. In order to be given consideration, written requests for interpretation and or clarification must be received at last three (3) business days prior to the date fixed for the opening of the bids. Del Each bid shall be submitted on the proposal form attached, in a sealed envelope (1) Addressed to the Purchasing Agent (2) Bearing the name and address of the bidder on the outside (3) Clearly marked BID with the name of the item(s) being bid. Provide One (1) Original & One (1) copy of the bid. Any Bid Addenda will be issued on the County , and processed in accordance with N.J.S.A. 40A:11-23(c)(1). Bidders shall comply with the requirements of N.J.S.A. 10:5-31 and N.J.A.C. 17-27 et seq. The County reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to waive identified irregularities and technicalities, and to award in whole or in part to the lowest responsible bidder, if it is in the best interest of the County to do so. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, any bid which is incomplete, obscure, or irregular may be rejected, any bid having erasures or corrections in the price sheet may be rejected, any bid in which unit prices are omitted, or in which unit/total prices are unbalanced, may be rejected, any bid accompanied by any insufficient or irregular certified check, cashiers check or bid bond may be rejected. The County further reserves the right to award each item separately to the lowest responsible bidder meeting specifications or to make an award based on the total bid to the bidder whose total sum is the low bid meeting the specifications, whichever in the awarding authorities opinion is in the best interest of the County. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the County reserves the right to award a contract based on either option that may be described in the bid proposal or based on any combination thereof. The County may also elect to award the contract on the basis of unit prices. The County reserves the right to award equal or tie bids at their discretion to any one of the tie bidders. Should the bidder, to whom the contract is awarded, fail to enter into a contract, the County may then, at its option, accept the bid of the next lowest responsible bidder. The effective period of this contract will be two years unless otherwise noted in the specifications. Continuation of the terms of this contract beyond the fiscal year is contingent on availability of funds in the following years budget. In the event of unavailability of such funds, the County reserves the right to cancel this contract. The form of contract shall be submitted by the County to the successful bidder. Terms of the specifications/bid package prevail. Bidder exceptions must be formally accepted by the County; material exceptions shall not be approved. Government entities are not private business/consumer clients; therefore, separate company agreements are not honored. Terms of the specifications/bid package prevail unless otherwise noted by the vendor as exceptions.