Council approves $85,130 boiler room project bid

    PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – City Council returned to its regular bi-monthly schedule with its September 5 session at City Hall.
Old business saw quite a bit of discussion, with councilors debating the pros and cons of proposed boiler room renovation project at City Hall on Second Street.    “The two bids we received were significantly higher than we’d estimated we’d (the city) have available,” City Manager Tom Stevens told the Council. “Bids came in higher than projected, so we went back to the lowest bidder and renegotiated.”
The lowest bidder – with a reported bid of about $172,000 – was identified as Industrial Heating and Piping Company, of Caribou and provided a bid of $79,130 for the revised project.
That figure increased to $85,130 when code issues were brought to light.
“We had to adjust the figure due to a couple code issues – a fire-rated door and ceiling in the boiler room. That meant adding $6,000 to adjust for the additional code upgrades,” said Stevens.
The city reportedly had up to $95,000 set aside for the boiler room project.
Items that had to be postponed from the original plans included: plumbing work, circulation pumps electrical work and other improvements.
“We’ll work those into our 2008 budget hopefully. We had to reduce the scope of work based on the amount of money we had available,” said Stevens.
Councilman Calvin Hall was concerned about putting off work.
“I’m concerned by not doing everything in the original proposal that we put out to bid, it might not get done. All aspects (of the project) could be impacted by the new items put in. Won’t it affect (the system’s operaton) overall?” asked Hall.
Councilwoman Jennifer Trombley expressed concerns as well regarding the bid process.
“I’m a little concerned we bid one job, had two bidders – concerned some may not have bid seeing so much subcontracting needed. Those who may have bid competitively didn’t based on the original specs. Now with some items postponed, you (the city) bid one job and now what you’ve agreed to do is totally different than what was originally bid on,” said Trombley.
Stevens said he’d responded to the ‘if I’d known what the bid was I would have bid’ question before and found he received mostly the same bidders.
“We could postpone until 2008 when we’d have more money in the budget. But if we plan to do work this year, it’s getting late in the year. The contractors put the word out pretty heavy that the project was coming; you do have options as the Council,” said Stevens.
Councilman Don Gardner said he was in favor of beginning the project now, so city staff don’t have to go through another cold winter with equipment malfunctioning.
Doing the project now, said Gardner, “would provide for the comfort and health and safety of employees.”
Following a lengthy discussion on the issue, Councilman G. Melvin Hovey made the motion and Don Gardner seconding to award the bid to Industrial Heating and Piping Company, of Caribou, for $85,130.
In other business, the Council:
• Approved a malt, spirituous and vinous liquor license application for Hope and James Estey, d/b/a Pat’s Pizza, 9 North Street;
• Approved the request for an additional vehicle to the license to operate a taxi cab service for Ryan and Larry Brown, d/b/a Brownie’s Taxi Service of Presque Isle;
• Approved a curb cut for Bruce Berube for property located at 19 Davis Street;
• Approved accepting a portion of Spruce Street as a public way;
•Discussed a report out by the Audit Committee to include proposed audit bid, reply to auditor’s management letter and potential of changing the fiscal year. Councilors voted to accept the Audit Committee’s recommendations to go out to bid for three-year terms for auditors, that they adopt the policy of only going with an auditor for a six-year period and changing every six years consecutively; and also accepted the committee’s recommendation not to change the city’s fiscal year for the time being;
• Approved borrowing $1,145,000 from the Maine Municipal Bond Bank for a renovations project at the Public Works Department. Repayment will be made over an 18-year period with the yearly payment estimated at $97,000;
• Discussed setting dates to review the city’s 2008 budget;
• Accepted the resignation of Allen Deeves from the Presque Isle Development Fund Board of Trustees;
• Approved consent agenda of City Council meeting minutes of August 6 (two meetings) and August 13; 2007 Warrants 31-34 totaling $1,301,933.26 and written department reports of July 2007; and
• Heard city manager’s report regarding the city planner position and the upcoming meeting with the Downtown Revitalization Committee. City Council will meet with members of the DRC on Thursday, Sept. 13, at 6 p.m. at City Hall to identify common goals. The public is welcome.
The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 17, at 6 p.m. at City Hall. The public is welcome and encouraged to participate. For more information, contact 764-4485.