OAKLAND — The Town Council on Thursday voted unanimously to hire a Winthrop company to manage construction of Oakland’s new police station.
A building subcommittee recommended the council hire JF Scott Construction after reviewing proposals from five local companies.
Project manager Rick MacKenzie said in an interview after the meeting that the company will work with the town to hire subcontractors and come up with construction materials that meet the town’s $1.05 million budget instead of being paid a lump sum.
In a presentation to the council, building committee chairman Mike Willey said JF Scott was one of two companies that met all the requirements the town included in its request for proposals.
At a meeting with committee members, the company displayed an understanding of the scope and importance of the police station project and proposed a “slightly better” schedule than the town had in mind.
JF Scott also was the only one that got a “100 percent positive response” when committee members conducted an informal survey of customers and others who had worked with companies that had put in proposals, Willey said. According to its website, JF Scott has worked on institutional projects such as MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Alfond Center for Health in Augusta and Thayer Center for Health in Waterville, as well as construction of a dormitory and dining hall at Unity College.
Voters in November overwhelmingly approved a plan to demolish the early-20th-century farmhouse on Fairfield Street that serves as the town’s police station and build a 3,900-square-foot modern building in the same location. The Police Department and town officials have said the current building is unsafe and inefficient and is not designed for a public safety role.
Residents authorized $1.05 million for the project with $900,000 borrowed from Skowhegan Savings bank and $150,000 coming from reserve accounts.
The town plans to tear down the old building and prepare the site with town resources instead of hiring a private company for the demolition.
Willey said that the committee wanted to work with a construction manager rather than bidding the entire project out to a company, so it could maintain oversight. Residents have been anxious about municipal spending and in 2009 rejected building a $4.5 million municipal complex, so getting the project right was important, he said.
“The committee felt it couldn’t fail,” Willey told councilors. “It had to be a success, and we had to make sure that in every step of the way it had to go in the right direction with the right cost.”
Peter McGuire — 861-9239
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