NEWFANE — Two bids for town office improvements have come in, both above the approximately $40,000 the town had hoped to spend, but not overly much.
“Perhaps there's wiggle room,” Board Chair Jon Mack said at the Aug. 15 Selectboard meeting. He added that the capital fund for the work was not firmly established.
The bids are from Townshend-based Wright Construction Co. ($48,737) and Integral Construction ($46,934).
Wright Construction's bid includes allowances of $16,450 for beam and floor joist replacement and floor leveling, $1,950 for concrete and cistern work, and $5,110 for removal and disposal of a large safe.
Selectmen and two members of the Building Committee, Michael Granger and Gunther Garbe, discussed the closeness of the bids, and agreed clarification is needed from Wright over what it calls allowances.
Selectmen voted unanimously to turn the bids over to the Building Committee to have committee member Phil Savoy, the engineer who drew up the RFP, get clarification from the contractors and see what, if anything, could be done to reduce the expense.
Savoy is also to find out from the contractors how disruptive the work is likely to be in the Town Offices.