Quechee —
Town Manager Leo Pullar said that staffers have been working with Holden Engineering to trim costs from a $470,000 estimate that Holden produced about a month ago, without making big sacrifices in quality.
Changes that will save the town money include combining two sets of stairs into one, foregoing an irrigation system, going to shorter, prefabricated concrete retaining walls, and maintaining, rather than replacing, the existing sidewalk and curbing.
Selectboard Chairman Dick Grassi said he has confidence that the project is in keeping with the multi-tiered design publicly approved by the Selectboard in September 2015, and the budget cap approved by the Selectboard in July 2016.
“I can assure the public that the town manager, the Planning Department, and the board would not sacrifice the quality of the project,” Grassi said. “There’s been too much work put into this. I feel that there is no reason to have questions or concerns about what the end product will be.”
The project has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since 2011, when flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene destroyed the bridge and a building on the site, and created an eyesore.
With the bridge since replaced, residents have disagreed on whether the area should be simply stabilized, or whether money should be spent to transform it into a more attractive, and costly, park with benches, landscaping, fencing, walkways and ramps.
The project is funded by $98,000 in grant money for flood-hazard mitigation, $125,000 set aside in Hartford’s 2015-16 fiscal budget, and $140,000 from the town’s 2016-17 budget.
Some of the grant money expires this June, which is driving the town to get through the bidding process as quickly as possible, so that work can begin in April or May.
Planners hoped to complete the project last year, but there were delays after the Federal Emergency Management Agency expressed concerns about the design, based on concerns that spray from an Ottauquechee River waterfall next to the park site could freeze, creating a slipping hazard.
After the town made clear its intentions to close the park in the winter, the agency reversed it decision, and gave the town permission to move forward in November 2016.
“It appears as if Leo Pullar and his team have positioned everything so we can see progress begin this summer,” said Tim Lewis, general manager of the Quechee Lakes Landowners Association, which lobbied the town for years to address the eyesore. “We are very excited to see it begin.”
On Monday, Pullar offered a description of the changes that had been made to bring the project costs down.
He said the $470,000 estimate from Holden went above and beyond the project parameters that the town had initially asked for.
The irrigation system for the on-site landscaping, he said, will not be necessary, because there will be a spigot and hose system for volunteers or Parks and Recreation staff to use. He said the spray created by the waterfall will also help to water the plants.
“It’s going to be plumbed,” he said. “We just didn’t need a $40,000 irrigation system.”
Rather than pouring retaining walls to contain the two tiers of the park, Pullar said the town will instead use prefabricated concrete walls that will serve the same purpose.
The South Main Street sidewalk at the top of the park, he said, is currently lower to the street than most sidewalks, so the $470,000 estimate included a plan to raise it by a few inches. The sacrifice of that component, he said, will help to eliminate the problem of a sudden change in sidewalk height between the park and the one in front of Simon Pearce, the neighboring business.
Simon Pearce has also agreed to combine its plans for a private staircase leading to the park’s lower level with a municipal staircase that does the same.
The duplication of effort represented in the dual staircase never sat well with Selectboard Vice Chairman Dennis Brown.
“I’m happy to have gone from two staircases to one,” Brown said Monday. “I think it will save money and be more aesthetically pleasing as well.”
Lori Hirshfield, executive director of the Planning Department, said the town now expects to see construction bids in line with the project budget, but that “Until you get your bids in, you don’t know for sure.”
Even if the lowest bid is too high, Hirshfield said, the town could come out OK.
“You sit down with the bidder who bids the best price, the lowest qualified bidder,” she said. “Then you look at it and if it’s over budget, then you go into value-added engineering.”
During that phase, Hirshfield said, the low bidder and the town work together to come up with an acceptable contract price.
If agreement can’t be reached, the town has the option of moving on to the next-lowest bidder.
Because of the time pressures, the town hopes to open bids on April 4, and qualify the low bidder within a few days of that time, according to Hirshfield.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.