Sag Harbor Village is reviewing bids for work to connect two sewersheds to the village’s wastewater treatment system, all of which came in higher than expected.
The work that must be done to route the sewersheds to the treatment facility is extensive. According to a grant request to the Southampton Town, one of the sewersheds entirely on the Southampton side of the village has “44 parcels, five of which consist of recreation and open space.” The other area has 44 parcels, 33 in East Hampton Town and seven in Southampton.
The village received eight sealed bids for the work. The two lowest are now in the hands of the village’s engineering consultants at the IMEG Corporation, where they will be reviewed. Sag Harbor has 45 days either to accept one bid per project, or reject all of them.
The lowest bid for the portion of the work fully in Southampton Town was just under $5.17 million, while the lowest for the other sewershed was just over $8.1 million.
“Maybe not surprisingly all the bids were a little more than we expected,” said Aidan Corish, Sag Harbor Village Trustee, “some very much more than we expected.” The discrepancy between the highest and lowest bids for each lot was millions of dollars, with a nearly $5.95 million difference between the highest and lowest for one sewershed and a nearly $4.1 million difference between the highest and lowest bids for the other.
Part of the job of the IMEG Corporation will be to compare the bids submitted to the 250-page bid documents provided by the village. “They’ll make sure that they [the bidders] are fully qualified and fully understood the parameters,” Mr. Corish said.
“This is typical of this process of municipal projects so we’re not saying full steam ahead yet, but we’re still making forward progress,” he said, “and I hope a month from now we will have more detailed information.”
“We’re going to have to regroup a little bit and see, maybe there’s an opportunity for value engineering, we have to raise more money,” Mr. Corish said, adding, “we don’t have a green light yet but we’re certainly not going to fall at the first fence.”
