Willow Street Bid Awarded

At the special meeting for the purpose of considering approval of the bid recommendation for the Willow Street water and sewer replacement project on Monday, February 14, Ken Rathbun of Bearlodge Engineering and Surveying came before the Upton Town Council to present his recommendation. Rathbun stated that six contractors submitted bids and the submitted bid documents of the lowest three bidders were thoroughly checked. The low bid was submitted by Dan Hart Patrol of Upton, but they did not include the “Certification Regarding Debarment…” form with the bid. He called Jennifer Russell, the SRF (State Revolving Fund-the Town’s primary funding source for this project) program’s Drinking Water Program administrator who made the following statement when asked about this issue:

“The project manual clearly states that the Debarment form needs to be included with the bid. This is a federal requirement and not one that we can waive. Therefore, the Town can award the contract to this bidder if they so desire, but no SRF funds can be used to pay for the contract if they choose to do so.”

The second and third low bids submitted by Hot Iron and Timberline Services met all required bid stipulations. Rathbun recommended that the bid be awarded to Hot Iron for a total bid price of $715,275.00. Town Superintendent Mark Lindstrom concurred. Mayor Travis Beck called for a motion to approve awarding the bid to Hot Iron. Councilman Joe Watt made the motion to approve, seconded by Councilman Nick Trandahl. All voted “aye”, motion passed.

By Ann Barker, Reporter

Courtesy of the Weston County Gazette