Caribou City Council awards public works bids

3 years ago

CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou City Council awarded bids for numerous Public Works materials during a May 3 meeting, including culverts, street paint, shim and patch, sand and paving.

For in-town paving, both Soderberg Construction of Caribou and Northeast Paving of Presque Isle had the same bid at $81 per ton.

“What [Public Works Director Dave Ouellette] and I talked about was where [Northeast Paving] was the low bidder for country paving, certainly they would be recommended, but where Soderberg Construction and [Northeast Paving] have the same bid amount for in-town paving, it could go to Soderberg Construction. So [Northeast Paving] would get country paving, and Soderberg would get the in-town paving,” Marker said.

“I’m pretty satisfied with what Soderberg did on the Grimes Road last year,” Councilor Thomas Ayer said. “They’re quick, they’re efficient, and they did a really good job.”

“I’m in favor of dividing that contract for in-town paving between the two that had the identical price,” Councilor Doug Morrell said, adding that they could split the tonnage.

The city awarded the country paving to Northeast Paving, who came in with a low bid of $77.80 per ton, compared to Trombley Industries’ bid of $83.45 per ton and Soderberg’s bid of $79 per ton.

For in-town paving, Morrell moved to split the two bids. Northeast Paving, he said, has a local contractor who pays taxes in Caribou and does more than 90 percent of their trucking. Ayer countered that Northeast Paving is a subsidiary of a European company.

“They may have ties in Presque Isle, but the bottom dollar goes overseas,” he said. “It’s kinda like buying a Toyota.”

Morrell’s motion failed and council ultimately voted to award all in-town paving to Soderberg Construction.

For culverts, EJ Prescott of Gardiner bid $7,391.80 and Paris Farmers of South Paris bid $7,538. Councilors voted to accept EJ Prescott’s low bid.

Morrell asked Ouellette, who attended the meeting via Zoom, if the bids for culverts would cover all of the necessary work for 2021.

Ouellette said inventory levels are considerably higher this year because of low use from last summer, resulting in the department needing less culverts. He said the bid does include two 60-inch culverts, representing more than half of the total bid.

Only one company, Franklin Paint of Franklin, Massachusetts, bid for street paint, and councilors accepted their bid of $11,159.54.

For shim and patch work, Trombley Industries of Limestone bid $78.50 per ton and Soderberg Construction of Caribou bid $72 per ton. The city accepted Soderberg’s low bid. 

For sand, they accepted K&M Sand & Gravel of Grand Falls, New Brunswick’s lone bid of $10.75 per ton.