Flatto: Town Won't Spend More Money on Metro Center if Construction Bids are High

First Selectman Ken Flatto's apparently found some wiggle room in an agreement between the town and state Department of Transportation to get public portions of the Fairfield Metro Center done.

Flatto told the town's Board of Finance Tuesday night that the town wouldn't spend more money on the Metro Center if bids to do construction work come in high. The bids, originally due to be opened at 11 a.m. today, instead are scheduled to be opened at 11 a.m. June 9 in Sullivan-Independence Hall, according to Flatto and the town Purchasing Department's Web site.

"We would not seek additional monies either because we're limited like everyone else," Flatto said.

But a section of the agreement between the town and DOT, which Flatto signed on March 18, states that the town and state mutually agree:

"(23) That the bond authorization in the amount of Nineteen Million Four Hundred Thousand Dollars ($19,400,000) shall be the maximum participation by the State, which includes the cost of Three Hundred Thousand Dollars ($300,000) for State provided services and Nineteen Million One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($19,100,000) for reimbursement to the Municipality for the State-Town Project. Any and all additional costs for the State-Town Project will be the responsibility of the Municipality. The Municipality shall not use any of the Nineteen Million One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($19,100,000) for other than the State-Town Project."

Flatto said Tuesday night that the agreement didn't require specific work to be done; that it was permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection and town's Inland Wetlands Commission that required work.

"There is no requirement as to all the different facets. The things that are required are more required because of permits, to satisfy DEP permits and Conservation Department permits. The expectation was that the work would be done to those standards. There's no language that says, 'We give you this money if you do these 50 things,' " Flatto said to the Board of Finance.

The first page of the agreement between the town and DOT states that required contract plans, specifications and estimates have been prepared by the town for improvements relative to the Fairfield Metro Center and those improvements include, but are not limited to, constructing a roadway from Black Rock Turnpike to the bridge over Metro-North Railroad tracks; installing a drainage system and required site remediation; constructing and completing a parking lot; and installing required and necessary lighting and other utilities.

The fourth page of the agreement states that the town shall "make no change which will increase the cost of the State-Town Project and make no change that will alter the termini, character or scope of work of the State-Town Project without prior State approval."

Bid documents on the town Purchasing Department's Web site three weeks ago - when the bid solicitation for construction work was first made - identified the construction work as involving sitework; grading; utilities; drainage; construction of an access road from the base of a state Department of Transportation bridge, across the property and onto Black Rock Turnpike; retaining walls; construction of the rail commuter parking lot; remediation and capping of contaminated materials on the property; and wetland mitigation.

Wetland mitigation isn't mentioned in the agreement between the town and DOT, though it is included in the permit from the Inland Wetlands Commission.

The state agreed to give $19.4 million ($300,000 of which is for state-provided services) toward public portions of the project; Flatto said the town has about $5 million left from a funding request of $6 million that was approved by town boards several years ago; and Blackrock Realty agreed to pay $5.2 million. Town officials have identified the overall amount of money available, based on those figures, as $29.6 million.

Page 9 of the agreement between the town and DOT states that the town and state mutually agree:

"(32) That the total estimated cost for the construction phase of the State-Town Project is Twenty-nine Million Six Hundred Forty-three Thousand Five Hundred Sixty-four Dollars ($29,643,564), which includes anticipated expenditures of up to Three Hundred Thousand Dollars ($300,000) for services to be provided by the State."

Flatto declined to say what would happen if bids came in high. "We would definitely be the ones that would need to address it...If we saw something that was a shocker, for me to even mention these as hypotheticals would be irresponsible."

Meanwhile, Flatto said Tuesday night that STV Incorporated in Stratford, one of seven bidders on the job to inspect the construction work, had been awarded the job. STV bid $984,770. AI Engineers Inc. in Middletown had bid $762,000, but town officials said AI didn't understand or accurately estimate how many hours were necessary to do the job.

The town doesn't have to accept the lowest bid; it has to accept the lowest bid from a qualified bidder.

The town already received bids and awarded a contract for work involved with improving off-site intersections to handle heavier traffic. That wasn't part of the agreement between the town and DOT from March, but was part of the original agreement among the town, state and Blackrock Realty from 2003.

The town's Purchasing Department said about two weeks ago that the contract for improving off-site intersections was awarded to Guerrera Construction Co. in Oxford at a cost of $2.561 million. The town received $2.2 million in federal stimulus money for that work, according to town officials.

Flatto said construction work on public portions of the Fairfield Metro Center should be done by the fall of 2011.

The Metro Center envisions the town's third train station, from 1,300 to 1,500 rail commuter parking spaces and nearly 1 million square feet of commercial development on 35.5 acres at 21 Black Rock Turnpike.

The agreement between the town and DOT, which was announced at a press conference April 29, came about because Blackrock Realty ran into financial difficulties and couldn't do work it was required to do under the 2003 agreement among the town, DOT and Blackrock Realty.