WESTFIELD – According to Westfield City Purchasing Director Tammy Tefft, the city has chosen to reject the bids which have been put forth to revamp the athletic field at South Middle School.
“We are going to be rebidding that project out this winter to get some better pricing,” Tefft said Friday. “The bids that came in were too high. We bid it at the wrong time of year, so we’ll be rebidding it sometime around December of this year.”
Tefft said that the area to be worked on is a wide expansion of grass used for an array of sports and activities.
“They do soccer there, I think they do lacrosse there, South Middle School uses it during gym classes, and there’s a ballfield with a 90-foot diamond,” she said.
Asked what the price range that the city may be looking to spend on the project, Tefft said that she won’t know until after budget talks have concluded.
Regarding the plans for the revamping of the field, Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik has attested to the project’s size and scope.
“It’s quite an extensive project. The lowest bid was $486,000 from JL Construction,” he said last week. “Mountain View (Landscapes and Lawncare) was next at $491,250, and (J.L) Raymaakers was $587,770.”
Based out of Springfield, J&L Construction was among the lowest of four qualifying bids received by the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee who for the construction and completion of their outdoor track.
They were selected to complete the project on Tuesday evening by the School Committee with a bid of $713,500, a figure that STGR Superintendent Dr. John Barry said was roughly $25,000 over the district’s projected budget.
The next lowest bid for the track project was Gagliarducci Construction, Inc., also of Springfield, at $748,000.
