Community Corner

Penfield Rebuild on the Street

Town Solicits Bids Via Legal Notice in Newspaper; Info Not Available Today on Town Web Site

The town's plan to demolish and rebuild the rest of Penfield Pavilion was publicly bid on Wednesday, but the bid didn't appear on the town's Web site. Instead, it appeared in a legal notice in the back of a Bridgeport newspaper.

The legal notice says, "Drawings and specifications for this bid may be obtained only from Connecticut Photo Blue, 2086 Black Rock Turnpike, Fairfield, for a non-refundable cost of $125 per set."

The town usually posts specifications and drawings for bids on the Purchasing Department's section of the town's Web site. Bids for the Fairfield Metro Center, for example, included hundreds of pages of documents and several drawings on the town's Web site and the bid specifications also were available for public review at no charge at Fairfield Public Library. Bids for smaller projects, such as replacing the roof on Sullivan-Independence Hall, also are posted on the town's Web site and that bid, due June 24, includes 21 pages of information and forms.

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The legal notice was published by the town's Purchasing Authority, which is comprised of Purchasing Director Twig Holland and First Selectman Ken Flatto. Holland wasn't available about 4 p.m. today and Flatto said he thought the bid to demolish and rebuild the rest of Penfield Pavilion had been posted on the town's Web site. He said he wasn't that involved in the bid solicitation and referred questions to the Penfield Building Committee.

James Gallagher, chairman of the Penfield Building Committee, told the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday that the bid was "on the street" and that bid packages had been sent out last week. But Al Kelly, a building committee member, said today that he didn't think the bid would officially be public until it was posted on the town's Web site. Gallagher wasn't available late this afternoon or early evening to clear up the confusion.

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According to the legal notice, a pre-bid conference is scheduled at 1 p.m. June 23 in Sullivan-Independence Hall, and bids will be opened at 1 p.m. July 14 in Sullivan-Independence Hall.

The project is broken in the legal advertisement into two bids - west wing construction and supply and installation of kitchen equipment. Both bids are due at 1 p.m., July 14.

Gallagher told the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday that the estimated cost to demolish and rebuild the center and westerly sections of Penfield Pavilion was $3.6 million. The estimate was from Malkin Construction Corp. of Stamford, which is the construction manager for renovations and expansions at Stratfield School and Fairfield Woods Middle School.

Gallagher told the selectmen that the construction estimate was higher than the selectmen wanted, but he said the building committee had scaled back the project and that no one spoke against the project during meetings of the building committee that began last November.

"We have heard absolutely nothing negative about the expenditure for this project," Gallagher said to the selectmen.

Gallagher said, "Bid packages went out last week. We're opening bids July 14. We'll have a much more realistic number of what this is going to cost."

Town boards haven't approved funding to demolish and rebuild the center and westerly sections of Penfield Pavilion, so bidders run the risk, if they win the job, of town boards rejecting a funding request to do the work.

Gallagher said the timeline called for a funding request, based off the bids, to be submitted to town boards in September and for the job to be done from September through Memorial Day 2011.

"It's going to be September before I can even come before the boards and ask for funding. It will have a significant impact on the timeline," he said.

Flatto said at the selectmen's meeting that his "biggest concern is the creep in the cost."

Flatto suggested that Penfield's deck could be smaller so the town could save money on footings and pilings.

But Gallagher said the size of the pavilion and deck on the new building would be smaller than the existing pavilion and deck. "It would be a disservice to residents to make it even smaller," he said.

Gallagher added that the building committee eliminated second-floor spaces in the proposed building, a cupola on top of the building, a movable glass wall and "a good number of seasonal lockers."

"We have really, really tried to keep these expenses down. Hopefully, when we get the bids back, I'll be able to say we were able to save another $38,000," Gallagher said.

Selectman James Walsh said, "It scares me a little bit that you're saying it's going to look less attractive."

Gallagher replied, "I don't want to mislead anyone in saying it's bland. It's just not as elegant as what we would have liked."

Selectman Sherri Steeneck noted that the existing center and westerly sections of Penfield Pavilion, built in 1901, were more than 100 years old. The town demolished and rebuilt the pavilion's easterly wing for $1.5 million in 2008, but the town had a $400,000 grant for that work so the cost to taxpayers was $1.1 million. The town has a $200,000 grant for the center and westerly sections, Flatto said.

Gallagher said it would be "impossible" for the building committee to provide a new pavilion that would last for another 100 years at a cost of less than $3.2 million. He said town Department of Public Works' crews already planned to do work valued at $332,000 to cut down on the cost.

"That's $332,000 on top of everything else," Gallagher said.

A funding request to demolish and rebuild the center and westerly sections of Penfield Pavilion would require approvals from the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting.


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