Following Legal Settlement, Officials Hope FFH Demo Delay Will Save Money

By John Voket

A legal dispute involving Standard Demolition would have likely resulted in expensive delays had the town launched plans to raze Litchfield Hall and the Yale Laboratory before winter, as was originally scheduled, according to the town finance director.

Robert Tait and First Selectman Pat Llodra told The Bee this week that the pending litigation would have put any demolition project already in process on hold, forcing what would have been costly delays — probably until the springtime.

Mrs Llodra said instead, she is remaining optimistic that the demolition project will fetch competitive, possibly even lower, costs when the town rebids the work in early 2010.

Standard Demolition’s low bid to demolish two buildings at Fairfield Hills was rejected by former first selectman Joe Borst, triggering a lawsuit.

During a Board of Selectmen meeting December 7, Selectman Will Rodgers moved to authorize the town attorney to enter into a settlement in the case, which named the town, along with project manager O&G Industries, Inc, and Manafort Brothers, Inc, the second low bidder, which was originally awarded the project.

The settlement, which will result in all previous project bids being thrown out, came in exchange for Standard Demolition’s withdrawal of its suit. The motion unanimously passed.

While it appears time was lost in beginning the work, Mr Tait and Mrs Llodra maintained the delay could be a blessing in disguise. The town already paid O&G $16,716 to complete the original bidding procedure, but Mr Tait anticipates rebidding costs could be substantially less because most of the prep work is already done.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley agreed that shutting down the project in process because of the lawsuit would have likely triggered seasonal weather delays into 2010.

“The time extension, regardless of the cost, may have washed or even exceeded the town’s cost to rebid the project next year,” Mr Hurley said. “We weren’t about to begin demolition while we were entering into litigation on the project.”

He added that in 40 years of administering public works bidding, Mr Hurley has seen second round bids come in lower, citing the Newtown High School project as an example.

Mr Hurley said virtually every federal bid document he has ever seen contains a clause that permits the halting of work, or the option of rebidding any project, if the government anticipates or becomes engaged in litigation with any parties involved in the bidding.

According to the legal papers, on August 28, Standard Demolition obtained bidding documents for the project, which involve the demolition of both Litchfield House and Yale Laboratory at Fairfield Hills. On September 21, the firm submitted a bid in the amount of $591,197, according to the documents.

When bids were publicly opened on September 21, it was learned that Standard had submitted the lowest bid for the project, with its base bid more than $67,800 lower than Manafort’s base bid for the same work, according to the legal papers.

According to the lawsuit, “A special interest group in the town that has been petitioning the federal government, the State of Connecticut, and the town to prevent a legal [solid waste] transfer facility operated by the Housatonic Railroad [from expanding] has pressured the first selectman to exclude Standard as a bidder on the [demolition] project, notwithstanding that Standard is not a party to any contract with the [railroad],” the legal papers state.

The “special interest group” mentioned is an apparent reference to the Hawleyville Environmental Advocacy Team (HEAT), an ad hoc citizens group that opposes that railroad’s proposal to significantly expanding the tonnage and also increasing the range of solid waste that it transfers from heavy trucks onto railcars for shipment by rail for disposal at out-of-state landfills.

The former first selectman is on record as saying he would not use Standard Demolition for the work at Fairfield Hills because of its involvement with the Housatonic Railroad controversy.

Mrs Llodra said this week she “didn’t know if Standard Demolition would have gone to litigation,” had those assertions not been made public.

“We tried to show the bidding process was not prejudiced,” Mrs Llodra said, but apparently the judgment that was pending favored the plaintiff.

Based on when the original reward was presented, Mr Tait conceded that had there been no lawsuit, the project may have been done before winter weather forced delays or postponement of finishing the demolition.