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Date: 6/20/2022
BELCHERTOWN – With the Belchertown Town Hall parking lot in need of repairs and repaving, at its June 13 meeting the Select Board agreed to award the bid for the project while also covering a shortfall using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
Department of Public Works Director Steve Williams said the town received three bids for the project and he suggested they move forward with Ludlow Construction, the lowest bidder for the project.
“I just finished up working with them on State Street, they were awarded the State Street reconstruction project through MassDOT, they’ve been contracted with the town and have done many jobs and we’ve had good experiences with them,” he said.
Despite being the low bidder, Williams said each bid was well over the budget for the project. Overall, the town allotted a total of $740,235 for the project, brought down to $725,555 after paying construction and design fees, while the bid proposal would cost the town $858,725, leaving a $133,170 deficit. Williams explained that prices are up across the board.
“In the last six months we saw blacktop prices rise 30 percent, we thought we were going to be in good shape on this project, but we missed the mark,” he said. “Tonight, when I was having dinner, on the news, they said inflation has hit 8.6 percent from a year ago and they don’t see an immediate change in that trend.”
While Williams said he normally would have suggested putting the work on hold, with the state of the economy that could be an issue, and instead suggested using ARPA funds to cover the shortfall because of the parking lot’s poor condition.
“Right now, it’s probably our best solution, just to move on like we did with the basketball courts and be done with this project once and for all,” he said. “It needs to be put behind us, the parking lot is in deplorable condition, there are safety hazards out there that I worry about every day, so we need to just put this over the top,” he said.
While board member Ed Boscher suggested splitting the project into two separate ones, Williams said that would be difficult to do. In doing so, Williams said the project would have to go back out to bid to do that because the project would have to go out to bid a second time and the price could increase significantly, even if it was half of the original.
Board member Ron Aponte said using ARPA funds to cover the shortfall was the way forward.
“With this particular project, there is definitely a safety concern. We know that as a fact, there’s safety, there’s liability and I think it has to be addressed. This stinks but I think we have to do it,” he said.
Board Chair Jen Turner said it was important to move forward with the project.
“This is the entryway to all of our town services and that affects everything within our town. From an economic development perspective that is in alignment because somebody will come here to talk to planning and get their permitting done and the entryway is not a good first impression,” she said.
While Boscher expressed concerns about approving the ARPA allocation because the list of approved ARPA projects had not been released to the entire board at the time of the meeting, he said the board’s back was up against the wall with the timing.
“This is one of those situations where it’s not ideal for me personally, but I can see the benefit and the timelines we’re up against,” he said.
Another issue Turner brought up is the fact that the project is being paid through a bond, which has specific timelines and requirements to be used on the parking lot project. Vice Chair Jim Barry added that if the bonded money was not spent on the parking lot project, it would have to be reallocated to another project at a Special Town Meeting.
The board unanimously agreed to fund the shortfall in funding from the parking lot project through ARPA funding and approved the bid with Ludlow Construction for the project.
During the meeting the board was also set to approve a contract with Community Paradigm for the town’s search and transition to a town manager, but the board was required to seek a third company to give a price for the project before moving forward.
The Belchertown Select Board next meets on June 27 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the July 7 edition of The Reminder.