Boards award Elm Street contract
By DAN MORIARTY
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD – Both the Board of Public Works and the Water Commission, meeting last night in a joint session, voted unanimously to bypass the lower bidder, because of past performance history, and award the $1.2 million Elm Street water main and paving contract to another company.
The Water Commission voted last week to request the joint meeting of the two boards after several members balked at awarding the contract to Freitas Construction of Ludlow.
The Water Commission had voted, at its Dec. 7, 2011 meeting, to award the contract to Morais Construction, Inc., of Springfield which submitted a bid of $604,639.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said the project had to be advertised and rebid 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 for contracts using state funding and did not list Morais as a qualified vendor.
The Freitas bid for the water line and sidewalk reconstruction was $1,360 lower than the second low bidder, Jack Goncalves & Sons, Inc., also of Ludlow. The Freitas bid for the entire project was about $4,000 below Goncalves.
Cressotti, after consulting with the city’s Law Department, recommended to the Water Commission at its March 6 meeting to accept the low bid from Freitas because eight years had passed and there was no current history to justify rejecting that bid.
The board declined to vote on the contract award, citing Freitas’ work on the Eastwood Acres sewer project which resulted in substantial damage to other underground utilities. The extensive damage to the water main required installation of a new main, an expense that was not anticipated.
Cressotti said that he extended his check of references for Freitas and also requested the city’s engineering consultant for the Elm Street project, Tighe & Bond, to provide further information of the performance standard of Freitas.
Cressotti said that he called several of the communities listed by Freitas and received negative recommendations.
“The letter of recommendation (to award Freitas the contract) that I presented to the Water Commission last week is being withdrawn and I am resubmitting another recommendation to award the contract to Goncalves,” Cressotti said. “Since that (March 6) meeting, it has come to light through our designer, Tighe & Bond, of their experience and that of several other communities with recent negative history of Freitas performance.”
Cressotti said that the reference checks he performed, as well as the Tighe & Bond experience, involving work Freitas performed in Agawam and Shelburne Falls within the past several years, could be considered by the boards in make the contract award decision.
“Given the fresh negative references… will be the grounds for rejecting (the Freitas) bid,” Cressotti said.
Todd Brown of Tighe & Bond said the engineering firm has “had a lot of problems with the quality of work of (Freitas), problems with damage to (other underground) infrastructure.”
“Elm Street has a lot of (underground) utilities, it’s a very tight corridor, so it will take a lot of care with a tight timeline” Brown said.
Ron Cole, chairman of the Water Commission asked if the engineers were “comfortable that awarding the contract of Goncalves will stand?”
Brown said that past experience of bid appeals filed by by-passed low bidders to the state Attorney General (AG) were generally denied if the awarding authority did not act in an arbitrary and capricious manner.
“New evidence can be presented to the awarding authority,” Brown said. “Anybody is free to protest a bid award, but in cases where the awarding authority decided a contractor is not suitable and has done their due diligence, the AG will not overturn that decision unless the awarding authority did something that is arbitrary and capricious.”
Brown said that Freitas was hired to install drainage lines in Agawam, but broke a sewer line that resulted in damage to residential property.
“It was damage that was avoidable,” he said.
Cressotti said “there is a letter from the Shelburne Falls Board of Selection recommending a negative decision,” Cressotti said. “I do have concerns based on (Freitas’) history in Westfield and other communities.”
“The Elm Street project site is very tight with multiple utilities of every sort, three water lines, three gas lines and other underground utilities,” he said. “The public will feel the pain of this construction, but if the contractor messes up, that pain will be much greater.”
Joe Spagnoli, currently a member of the Board of Public Works, was the chairman of the Water Commission during the Eastwood Acres sewer project, and said last night that he could “never vote to award a contract to (Freitas)” based on their past performance.
Freitas completed the sewer installation, but never completed the paving portion because another firm was hired to replace the damaged water line and pave the streets after the work was completed.
Water Commissioner Mike Burns said that Cressotti and Brown “answered my questions” about the contractor’s qualification and performance history.
Burns said last week 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?”
Each board then voted separately to award the contract to Goncalves & Sons, Inc.
Dan Moriarty can be reached at [email protected]
