Commission balks
on contract award
By DAN MORIARTY
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD – The Water Commission refused to award a contract to the low bidder last night because of past history with that construction company.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti presented the results of a rebid for the $1.2 million Elm Street improvement project to the commission. The project has two components, replacing a water line and paving the roadway between Church Street and the Great River Bridge construction zone.
Two Ludlow contractors, Freitas Construction and Jack Goncalves & Sons both submitted the same amount, $639,981.74, for the water element of the project.
A third Ludlow firm, Ludlow Construction, submitted a bid of $639,911.10 for the water project.
That work involves replacing the water mains and lateral lines to the buildings along that section of Elm Street. Installing the lateral lines will require replacement of the sidewalks, as well and installation of wiring for new traffic control signals at the intersection of Franklin and Elm streets and at the intersection of Arnold and Thomas streets with Elm Street.
The Water Commission voted at its Dec. 7, 2011 meeting to award the contract to Morais Construction, Inc., of Springfield which submitted a bid of $604,639. The project contract was originally advertised last fall.
Cressotti said the project had to be advertised a second time because the combined project involves the use of state Chapter 90 funding.
The state Department of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) pre-qualifies contractors through a vetting process.
“The contractors have to provide information (to DCAM) to determine if they have the capacity to perform the job,” Cressotti said yesterday. “It’s a requirement of the procurement process.”
Cressotti said that Freitas Construction submitted the low combined bid for both the water line installment and paving, about $4,000 below the combined bid of Goncalves.
The issue now is that commission still has an unpalatable taste in its mouth for Freitas which was the contractor in the Eastwood sewer line project, extensively damaging the water lines and other underground utilities during that project.
Cressotti said that he discussed the bids with the Law Department which advised him that the commission had to select the low bidder and that the company may have improved its construction practices in the eight years since it did the Eastwood project.
Commission Chairman Ron Cole asked Cressotti if Freitas was the same contractor involved in the “Eastwood debacle.”
Cressotti said that he does have concerns with Freitas.
“As do we,” Cole said. “The board is not comfortable with this.”
Board member Mike Burns said that as both a commissioner and a citizen of Westfield “I can’t vote to give it to them in good conscience. How can we give it to them (with all of the underground facilities we have) in the center of town?”
Cole said that if the commission “is forced at gunpoint by the Law Department, we’ll give it to them, but I’m with Mike. They seem to have difficulty in avoiding underground structures.”
“In terms of the work they did in Eastwood, I’m with Mike, given their history,” Cole said. “It’s not a clear bid amount we’re approving. If the dollar amount is equal (for the water portion of the project) I’d give it to Goncalves.”
“If it’s exactly the same price, and given their history, it’s a slam dunk for me,” Cole said. “I feel absolutely comfortable in awarding it to Goncalves.”
Burns agreed with Cole’s assessment.
“If it’s tied. I know what happened up there, I have family in that neighborhood,” Burns said. “I know what the members of the City Council would say if we give it to them.”
The board members agreed to request a joint meeting with the Board of Public Works, which meeting on March 13, to discuss the contract. Two BPW members are residents of the Eastwood subdivision.
“I think we push the envelope,” Burns said. “We have to make a stand on this.”
Dan Moriarty can be reached at [email protected]
