NEW GLOUCESTER – Selectmen voted 3-2 Monday night to hire OEST Associates of South Portland to perform engineering studies on part of Woodman Road. The South Portland company bid $65,482 for the preliminary reconstruction work.
Town Manager Rosemary Kulow, Public Works Director Kevin Doyle and Selectman Steve Libby had interviewed OEST Associates, Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers and Taylor Engineering Associates of Auburn. Those were among seven companies submitting proposals for rebuilding the gravel road off Route 231. However, the committee made no recommendation to selectmen.
After Kulow was asked to study the proposals, she recommended Gorrill-Palmer, which bid $61,445. She said the company is expected to reduce its bid to the $40,000 range by removing the cost of monitoring during the construction phase of the project.
“I was sent away to look carefully at all the proposals. My conscience made me choose Gorrill and Palmer,” she said.
Selectmen Kevin Sullivan, who along with David Lunt voted against OEST on Monday, said the committee should issue a recommendation to selectmen.
Libby, Dale Maschino and Lenora Conger voted for OEST.
Libby argued that OEST Associates “rose to the top.” He said the proposal included digging 50 test pits along the road rather than 18, as recommended by Gorrill-Palmer. And, most all the engineering work would be done in-house by OEST, he said.
In other business, the board will review a prioritized capital improvement planning list that totals $1,401,715 for fiscal year 2006-07. A total of $575,000 would come from reserves and $826,715 from taxes.
The list of requests includes $300,000 for a fire/rescue station engineering study, $25,000 for fire protection capital reserve, $80,000 for fire department equipment capital reserve, $25,000 for highway department garage update, $20,000 for universal waste storage building, and $25,000 for communication system. Some of the other 29 items are $200,000 for the Woodman Road reconstruction, $5,000 for radio upgrades, $25,000 for future land purchase capital reserve, $80,000 for a backhoe, $150,000 for a plow truck and $176,715 for paving.
Comments are no longer available on this story