76--Notice of Intent to Award Sole Sole Source Award - Boise, ID Imagery

The Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey intends to award a sole source purchase order (under the provisions of FAR 13.106-1(b)), to the Community Planning Association (COMPASS) of Meridian, ID for imagery to be acquired by COMPASS as described below. The USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP) has a cyclical need for high resolution leaf-off color orthoimagery in various locations nationwide to support of The National Map, natural resource management needs, coordinated emergency and disaster response needs, as well as additional needs of various other federal, state and local agencies. Since the existing imagery for the Boise, ID area has become dated, more recent replacement imagery (which is suitable and commonly shared) has been identified as a need for the USGS as well as other federal, state, and local stakeholders. The Community Planning Association (COMPASS) is the designated coordinating body for the collection, sharing and dissemination of orthoimagery to state, county and city government for the greater Boise Idaho Metro area which covers two counties and six cities over a 2,000 square mile area. COMPASS has previously completed multiple successful orthoimagery collections on a two to three year collection interval, and USGS has been a partner with COMPASS in many of those previous projects. In this regard, the USGS has benefited from both the multiagency data sharing infrastructures developed, as well as associated cost savings resulting from the cost sharing approach. For the current cycle, the estimated/potential $50,000 planned USGS purchase order amounts to a contribution of approximately 22% of the estimated final cost of delivering this year's updated collection product. The remaining costs (78%) of the data collection activity are to be absorbed by COMPASS and/or its partners. The COMPASS partnership process involves a multiagency agreement on standards, specifications, and data sharing that ensures common data and standards use by all levels of government doing business in the Boise metro area. This eliminates discrepancies and errors that typically occur when multiple data sources are used by multiple agencies and translates to considerable cost savings. Due to the joint/shared funding of this project by the parties involved, a sole source award to COMPASS for the completed data which results from their project is considered to be in the best interests of the government, as it yields a significant cost savings to the USGS (estimated 78% savings over the cost of a like effort funded solely by the agency). A sole source award is planned under FAR Part 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures; accordingly a competitive solicitation will not be published or released under this requirement. Interested parties may submit a capabilities statement, together with information as to their immediate ability and willingness to contribute a significant portion of the funding and management of a similarly structured partnership and program for the joint costs of funding this activity via email to the buyer noted herein, not later than the closing date for this announcement.