Springfield delays awarding bid for dam review

Springfield Select Board members want additional information from the low bidders on the contract to assess the condition of the Weathersfield Reservoir before they award a contract.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110727/NEWS02/707279875

Published July 27, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Springfield delays awarding bid for dam review

By SUSAN SMALLHEER

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Select Board members want additional information from the low bidders on the contract to assess the condition of the Weathersfield Reservoir before they award a contract.

The board told Town Manager Robert Forguites they wanted additional information from the four lowest bidders of the seven firms that submitted proposals.

The bids ranged in price from $15,000 to $70,700.

Forguites hired an engineer who specializes in dams. He reviewed all seven proposals, and said all of them met the bid requirements.

The second-lowest bid was submitted by DuBois & King, a Randolph-based engineering firm which recently opened an office in Springfield. While DuBois & King was $23,000, plus an additional $10,000 if drilling is needed, the board seemed to favor that bid.

DuBois & King estimated they would spend 300 hours studying the dam and coming up with a proposal, while other firms said they would spend much less time.

The lowest bid appeared “lackluster,” said Select Board member John Swanson, who said he had doubts about the job the firm would do.

And Select Board member Michael Knoras noted that the high bidder had earmarked $5,000 for meetings.

Forguites said that copies of one of the proposals were missing from the town office, and he would have to request additional ones for the Select Board.

Select Board member Stephanie Gibson asked Forguites to not just check DuBois & King’s references, but also talk to other towns who had hired the firm.

After the board decided it needed more information, the future of the reservoir resurfaced.

Knoras said he expected the work to “cure the liability” the town might have for its deteriorated structure.

“What purpose will the dam serve?” Knoras asked.

It might cost $500,000 “to put it back into shape,” Forguites said, while noting that some estimates were much higher.

Steve Sysko, a Springfield resident who has bird-dogged the Springfield Select Board for years about the future of the reservoir, said residents voted overwhelmingly in 2010 not to sell the dam. Sysko said his small group of supporters didn’t want the dam “back online,” but that the deteriorated concrete spillway be replaced and the dam made safe.

He said the key was just to return the dam to state safety standards and said there should be $150,000 in the fund established years ago by voters to repair the dam.