Politics & Government

East Windsor Selectmen Chuck Low Bidder For Local Businesses To Clean Up Debris

Selectmen decide in favor local companies who first approached the town last month about cleaning up the October 29 snowstorm debris.


East Windsor selectmen Tuesday bypassed the low bidder on cleaning up October 29 snowstorm debris and awarded the contract to two local businessmen.

A Suffield company, BRD LLC, had proposed the lowest bid. But the bid process came after Herb Holden Trucking and Botticello Enterprises had worked out a proposed agreement and price.

“The board can throw out the low bidder,” First Selectwoman Denise Menard said before the board voted in favor of doing so. “Understand we will get criticism if we spend too much money. Understand we will get criticism if we don’t go local.”

Voters on November 30 approved the town spending up to $70,000 for its portion of the cost of debris clean up.

The $70,000 is the town’s portion after FEMA reimburses 75 percent of the estimated $280,000 cost for contractors to collect, haul, grind and dispose of the debris, and a monitoring company to oversee the project.

First Selectwoman Denise Menard said that someone at the town meeting was adamant about the project going out to bid. So they decided to go to a one day bid, Menard said.

On Monday, four bids were opened. There were four specifications: to pick up and haul an estimated 15,000 cubic yards of roadside debris; grinding and disposing of debris at temporary debris storage and reduction, set up by the contractor; grinding of  an estimated 10,000 cubic yards of debris located at the public works facility; and grinding and disposal of the debris at the public works facility.

Officials said BRD LLC’s  $215,000 bid is about $60,000 less than Holden’s and Botticello’s bid.

Menard said she and Public Works Director Leonard Norton had a hard time deciding what to do. Holden and Botticello had put forth a proposal that was made public during the town meeting, so anyone bidding had a reference point to start from.

Menard said she asked the town attorney if there was a problem and was told that because the original numbers were from a bid process there was no legal problem. Town officials checked BRD’s rreferences and they were good, she said.

“I don’t know what else to say,” Menard said.

Before the vote, Herb Holden chastised the town for the bid process, saying BRD is a rival.

“I’m very displeased about how this town handled this,” Holden said. After the vote, he thanked the board for its decision.

Selectmen and others attending Tuesday’s meeting came to the side of Holden and Botticello saying they were local businessmen who’d done a lot for the town.

Selectwoman Dale Nelson said with the FEMA reimbursement the difference in the bids for the town’s out of pocket cost would be $15,000. Dennis Botticello and Herb Holden have been attending all of the meetings about the debris since they first approached town officials to help.

“I’d be willing to spend the money because it’s local businesses,” Nelson said.

Selectman James Richards said although he was not supportive of spending money to pick up the debris, Holden and Botticello came to the town and offered their services. Although they will make money, they came to the town with not unreasonable prices, he said.

“They came to us to help the town,” Richards said. “I think they came to us out of the goodness of their hearts.”


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