Two bids for repairs along street are far apart
The town is looking into why two bids for repairs along Orchard Street differ so sharply.
The two bids for the work were $5,190 from Leo Boice and $15,000 from Ulster Excavating.
Town Highway Superintendent Michael Shultis said the work is to include repairing a catch basin, replacing 190 feet of pipes and closing a ditch.
The town had planned to do the work itself but ultimately decided outside help was needed.
“Nobody knew what we were going to get into,” Shultis said. “... When we started digging for that catch basin, it just collapsed in on itself.”
Shultis said the problems will worsen if the work is not done soon.
“I don’t want to delay it,” he said. “If it’s got to come out of the repair budget, so be it, but we’ve got to ... get it done before the weather turns.”
Town Councilwoman Barbara Zell was among those not convinced the disparity between the two bids was related to how the contractors assessed the problem.
“This whole thing to me is just mind-boggling, and I don’t pretend to know anything about excavation,” she said.
“We started out last year when [then-Highway Superintendent Clyde Russell] was still here and got the bids,” Zell said. “The one guy bid it, and then we found out he didn’t have ... the right insurance or something. So then we decided to scrap it [in favor of town crews] ... and the job’s not finished.”
Councilman John Gill said the problem is not with the personnel but the equipment needed for the project.
“The point is we don’t have the right equipment to do the job,” he said.
Hurley Supervisor John Perry said there needs to be assurance that the low bidder will pay its workers the prevailing wage before the town signs a contract.