By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
COEYMANS — Flach Industries was awarded the contract to build a public restroom facility at Coeymans Landing.
Flach submitted the lowest bid, coming in at $377,700. The town board accepted the bid at their Aug. 24 meeting.
“We had the bid opening today at 2 o’clock,” Town Supervisor George McHugh said at the meeting. “We had three bids and one was substantially lower than the other two. All of those bids were emailed immediately to our engineers and our engineers sent us a recommendation letter, which I passed on to all of the board members.”
Eleven contractors requested bid documents from the town’s engineering firm, MJ Engineering and Land Surveying, which oversaw the bidding process.
“There was a company out of Ohio, there was a company out of Wallkill, two companies out of Albany, a couple of local ones,” Highway Superintendent Daniel Baker said. “So, there was some interest.”
Of the 11 contractors who viewed the bid documents, three submitted bids: Gallo Construction Corp. at $520,400; Carver Construction Inc. at $583,145; and Flach Industries, Inc., with the low bid of $377,700.
“I did speak to the low bidder earlier today and they are prepared to have a pre-construction meeting prior to Labor Day with Mr. Baker and with the engineers on site, and they are prepared to mobilize on Sept. 5,” McHugh said Thursday. “So that project will get underway very quickly.”
Christopher Dooley, vice president of Operations for MJ Engineering, submitted a written recommendation to the board.
“Based on the bid results, Flach Industries Inc., located in Selkirk, NY, is the low bidder for the Coeymans Landing restroom project,” according to Dooley’s letter. “MJ Engineering and Land Surveying PC has reviewed Flach’s bid in detail to assess the validity of their bid prices, experience and references. Flach is comfortable with their bid price, the scope of required work and the anticipated schedule for this project. MJ recommends that the town award the contract for the Coeymans Landing restroom project to Flach for the total contract bid in the amount of $377,700.”
The town board unanimously voted to accept Flach Industries’ bid.
The bulk of the project will be paid for through federal funds given to the town through the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, which was established to help communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Those funds can be used for the improvement of sanitary facilities.
A similar project is already underway at Joralemon Park, where a restroom facility is under construction.
Originally slated for completion in mid-September, work at Joralemon Park was delayed due to heavy rains and the discovery of an underground spring, McHugh said at the Aug. 24 town board meeting.
“There was a delay,” the town supervisor said. “Lo and behold, we struck water at Joralemon Park when they dug the foundation for the footings. They hit a spring — a natural spring — and they were pumping it for weeks. Between the rain and the spring, they could barely keep up.”
Work resumed on the construction project last Thursday.