Capital Project Bids Accepted
by Alex Brooks
At a short special meeting held virtually on February 23 at 6 pm, The Hoosick Falls School Board accepted bids totaling $12.5 million for work on the Second Phase of the District’s Capital Project, which will get underway in late spring of this year. The bids were received February 10 and have since then been fully vetted and approved by the District’s architects and construction manager, as well as the District Board of Education, Superintendent and Business Manager.
Most of the bids were issued with a “base” project and an alternate with additional work involved, so that if the bids came in high, the District would be able to accept the “base” contract only, and forgo the work contained in the “alternate,” and in that way keep the project under the total sum approved by the voters. But since the bids were close to the estimates provided by the District’s architects, the Board was able to accept all of the alternates as well as the base bids, and include all of the work as planned. Business Manager Emily Sanders said at this time the Project is under the overall budget approved by the voters.
The General Construction contract was awarded to Bast Hatfield Construction LLC for a total of $5,643,000. The Mechanical Construction contract was awarded to RMB Heating and Cooling LLC for a total of $2,685,500. The Electrical Construction contract was awarded to Flex Electric LLC for a total of $3,112,500. The Plumbing Construction contract was awarded to DiGesare Mechanical Inc. for a total of $787,500. The Data Cabling contract was awarded to Garnet Technology Solutions Inc. for $261,465. These were all approved by votes of 5-0. Board President Rachel Boisvert was not at the meeting and Vice President Joe Patire ran the meeting in her absence.
The Board also appointed advisors and safety officers for the trap shooting and skeet shooting clubs, and appointed several volunteers to work in sports programs, including Wrestling and Soccer.
The Board also made budget transfers involving $337,268. Business Manager Emily Sanders explained that this is because CARES Act funding has been approved, and because it is Federal money, those sums must be broken out into different budget codes. She said the money has already been budgeted and the budget transfers approved do not change the overall budget situation.
The next regular meeting of the Hoosick Falls BOE will be March 18 at 6:30 pm.