March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Pittsfield officials open bids for water projects, power lines> Brescia Construction, Bay State firm both expected to win pacts

PITTSFIELD — Bids were opened Tuesday at the Pittsfield Town Office for the construction of a new well, pump house and power supply lines.

According to Town Manager Dwight Dogherty, three bids were received for the well construction. R.E. Chapman of West Boylston, Mass., was the low bidder at $24,959. The Chapman company constructed all of Pittsfield’s water supply wells within recent history, dating back to the 1970s.

Bids on the pump station were made in two forms, a base bid for the pump station and a combined bid with the station and the installation of an underground power supply. Dogherty said Brescia Construction Inc. of Clinton was the apparent low bidder on both options, bidding $773,575 on the pump station and $828,575 with the three-phase power installation included.

Other bidders included the second-lowest bidder, Lee Brothers Inc., at $920,238 for the station and $964,838 with the power installation.

Chapman and Brescia will likely be awarded the contracts after engineers with Wright-Pierce Engineering review the bid documents, including the compliance statement and bid bond.

Engineering estimates on the project were below the actual bids for the pump station at $750,000, but above the actual bids on the well at $32,000.

“It’s well within the contingency funding,” Dogherty said.

Plans for the town to run underground power lines are still in dispute because of recent legislation that requires power companies to own underground power lines in a public right of way. The town has appealed its case to the Public Utilities Commission to point out that having the town install the power lines offers a significant savings to water department customers.

Additional costs to the department to have Central Maine Power install underground lines would be a $93,120 initial payment and more than $1,000 monthly thereafter.

The purchase of the land across the Sebasticook River, owned by Dragon Products, is held up to clarify title to the property, Dogherty said. Records in Waldo County indicate mineral rights to the property need to be cleared up. The records show the Passamaquoddy tribe and Prudential Insurance Co. with mineral rights. If those rights do not include water, there is no problem, Dogherty said. However, the rights will have to be released, if water is included, to allow the town to have clear title to the property and its resources.


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