New bids due by July 2 for cemetery wall work

The Town Board has set a July 2 deadline for bids to repair a 300-foot-long section of the 134-year-old stone wall at the town cemetery.

This is the second effort to hire a contractor for the project.

“We went out to bid on the cemetery wall,” Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia said at a board meeting Monday. “We awarded it. The company to whom we awarded it neither signed the contract nor proceeded with the work.”

Dean C. Ale Excavation last year submitted the lowest of nine bids for the work, $148,207.87, but town officials acknowledged incorrect cost information had been provided to bidders.

Town officials on Monday said another meeting will be conducted to discuss specifications without providing cost estimates.

“We talked to the engineer, and he expects that most of the people who bid on it before will also bid again,” said Cemetery Committee Chairwoman Suzanne Kelly.

A March 2017 engineering report stated the wall would last about 70 years if stones are used or about 100 years if it’s repaired with cement.

Some sections of the wall, which is from 1 to 2 feet tall, are used as a retaining wall for the rolling hills along U.S. Route 9.

Town officials say part of the work will be paid for with a $75,000 grant from the Rhinebeck-based Frost Foundation and $10,000 from the group Friends of Rhinebeck Cemetery.