Public safety bids exceed $4.7 million
By Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Reporter

The bids for the public safety building came in slightly higher then expected this week after eight prices were opened ranging from $4.74 million to $5.56 million.

The low bid of $4,7448,258 was submitted by BW Construction, of Spencer. The committee was hoping for bids between $4.3 and $4.7 million.

These general construction bids do not include "soft" costs, such as architect fees, furniture, fixtures, and equipment.

Voters approved $5 million at the annual town meeting in May 2004 to be supplemented with a $1.5 million donation from Cushing Academy. The town has already spent some of the money preparing the site on Central Street by the post office, hiring and working with the architect as well as hiring a project manager.

The other bids for the project were M. O'Connor Contractors, of West Roxbury, at $4.887 million; Souliere & Zepka Construction, of Adams, at $4.897 million; Fontaine Brothers, of Springfield, at $4.910 million; Statewide Engineering and Construction, of Braintree, at $4.913 million; JBM GSN Contractors, of Concord, at $5.291 million, Eastern General Contractors, of Springfield, at $5.325 million, and G&R Construction, of Braintree, at $5.565 million.

The committee designed the project with five alternates, which would be additional projects done during construction if funds allowed. These were not included in the cost estimate, and would be a separate expense included in the project bids.

The alternatives must be accepted in the order the committee ranked them before the contractors received the bids. The committee voted on the ranking at their Jan. 4 meeting according to the minutes.

The first was to finish the police locker rooms, which would range in cost from $150,000 to $172,000 with M. O'Connor being the highest bidder for this alternative.

Completing the fire department training room ranged from $129,752 to $172,700 and adding two more cells for the police department from $54,700 to $72,000. The cost to finish the fire department locker rooms was between $73,000 and $138,500. The expense of masonry work on the front exterior ranged between $27,000 and $38,500.

Once a general contractor is selected, based on the overall low bid, that contractor's bids for the alternatives must be used.

"We have enough to build the basic building," said Town Administrator Kevin Paicos. "That is good news."

He said there is not enough money in the budget to pay for any of the alternates but there is about $250,000 in the budget for contengency funds. Officials are in the middle of checking the documentation of each of the bidders, to make sure the lowest bidder is qualified and to determine in there is another way to fund any of the alternates.

The Public Safety Building Committee is expected to make a recommendation to the Board of Selectmen within a couple of weeks.

The bids for a larger version of the building were opened in November 2005 and were over budget by $2.95 million, for a total cost of $6.887 for general construction. Voters rejected two requests for additional funding - through overrides - which caused a second public safety building committee to be formed in the spring.

Fontaine Brothers Inc., of Springfield, who was the low bidder last time, did not submit a bid for this time around.