ASA FROZEN OUT OF ANTARCTIC SUPPORT.

• Author: Tilus, Stephen
• Position: Arctic Support Services - Brief Article

Buying hot dogs is not big business; neither is taking out the trash. But when one organization provides both services, along with medical care, construction, transportation, housing, water, electricity and a long-distance phone call to Mom, the stakes rise.

For 10 years Englewood-based Arctic Support Associates (ASA) has been the sole support for 3,000 National Science Foundation researchers working in Antarctica's McMurdo, Palmer and other research stations on the 5.4-million-square-mile continent. Despite getting high marks on regular evaluations and praise from an independent federal oversight committee, ASA in March lost its $100 million contract to Aurora-based Raytheon Polar Services Co. by what company representatives describe as a very narrow dollar margin.

"We had the highest performance evaluation ever received by anyone working on the contract," said Paul Steinke, senior vice president of Holms and Narver ASA's parent company. "We were very disappointed. A lot of the people working for ASA took it personally."

Holms and...