Little interest was drawn for contracts to construct the New Salem Water District, with one of the three contracts not receiving a single bidder.
Three bids for two contracts were opened at New Scotland Town Hall Thursday afternoon, Aug. 21, after the deadline was extended one week for contracts tied to the New Salem Water District Water Distribution and Storage Project. The first contract, covering the most extensive work, garnered two bids and the third contract only attracted one bid. The second contract had no bidders, and town officials are determining how to proceed.
“At this point, we’ll look into our options on how to proceed with that,” said David Hansen of Stantec Consulting Services, who works for the town. “We have to look at our options with the funding mechanism and review with the town.”
Work included in the second contract generally consists of plumbing improvements to allow installation of a booster pump system in an existing town-owned building.
Hansen said the town could potentially rebid the second contract, but if it fails to garner any bids again, then another avenue would be pursued. Hansen said the town might purchase materials directly and bid out the labor or use town employees.
“We have to get the work completed,” he said. “There are lots of options, but we have to review what is allowed.”
The state Environmental Facilities Corporation is providing funding to New Scotland through an interest-free loan, which will be paid back over 30 years.
Only residents within the new district would be charged for construction expenses. Construction expenses are estimated to total around $3 million.
The low bidder for the first contract was Casale Construction, which totaled almost $2.28 million. The other bid received was from Trinity Construction and totaled more than $3.47 million. If no problems are found, the town will select Casale.
Hansen said Casale’s bid fell around what the town had estimated for the contract.
There were four addendums added to the first contract, along with 42 items for the base bid. Hansen said a couple of contractors asked for the bid deadline to be extended from the original three-week time period.
“It was a short bid period originally, and it was aggressive to begin with. So, we didn’t feel it was much of an impact to push it off one week and allow people to be more comprehensive in their bids,” said Hansen.
The third contract included electrical work tied to the booster pump system, an emergency generator interconnection and equipment needed at the tank site. Stilsing Electric, the only bidder, would do the work for $75,000.
In May of last year, the town board established the boundaries of the new water district, which generally encompasses the hamlet of New Salem. The district would serve about 170 customers, with around 75 residents the Town of Bethlehem serves included. The remaining customers would be new taps.
The cost of the project cannot exceed $3.05 million, along with Bethlehem contributing an additional $152,000 for constructing the district.
New Scotland and Bethlehem also reached a 30-year inter-municipal water supply agreement for the district last summer.
New Scotland can purchase up to 11 million gallons of water annually at the rate of $2.27 per1,000 gallons under the agreement. The rate will also increase annually per the change in the consumer price index. Additional water up to 13 million gallons annually can be purchased at twice the normal rate.
The new district takes the maintenance burden off Bethlehem from the existing customers it serves from a pipeline that’s around 90 year old. New Salem’s district will connect to Bethlehem’s pipeline along Route 85.