SKOWHEGAN — Officials are almost “off to the races” on the construction of a new public safety building after selectmen authorized the town’s fire chief to put the project out to bid.

The town’s Board of Selectmen on Tuesday gave a unanimous OK to allow the town’s fire chief to put the project out to bid after being presented with updates and logistics on the project from an engineer and architect from Haley Ward Inc.

Matthew Carter, project manager of Haley Ward Inc., said during his presentation that once bids are received, officials will “all work together to select the apparent low bidder,” and then “work out a contract with (the) person or company.”

“Then we’ll be off to the races as far as construction goes,” Carter said.

And though the matter was ultimately approved by the entire board, one selectmen raised concerns that he had over apparent issues that may arise during the bidding process, including the rise in construction costs and the lack of labor that industries across the board are facing.

“I think you’re extremely optimistic about the situation,” Selectman Harold Bigelow said, noting the labor shortages that employers are seeing nationwide. “The idea of our board here is to save the taxpayers money and what you guys have just given us is like a hostage situation, we either buy it now at this low, low price, or if you wait, next year’s model is going to be much higher.”

Not all selectmen shared this sentiment, however, with Chairman Paul York speaking in favor of the project and highlighting all of the planning that has gone into the project up to this point.

“ The fact that we’ve been working on this for a long time, we have a committee in place that has gone through this very methodically, and we have done nothing but try to save money through this entire process,” York said. “The truth of the matter is, the longer we wait the more money it’s going to cost. That’s not a scare tactic, that’s just fact.”

Residents have voted for a combined fire and police station to be built on East Madison Road at an estimated cost of $8.9 million, following the results of a ranked-choice vote on Election Day 2020.

When complete, the building will sit on the corner of East Madison Road and Dunlop Lane, with the public safety building located on the front side of the property with the potential to use the back side of the land in the future.

To address Bigelow’s remarks, Carter explained that there are several potential solutions to any surprises that may come up during the bidding process. For starters, he said that contingencies have been built into the budget that has been approved by taxpayers, “that protects the project against strangeness in the bid market.”

Additionally, acknowledging that “it is entirely possible that bids may be high,” as a result of the current market, alternate plans have been constructed into the bid document, which are essentially “pieces of the building that we can peel away and not do if the building is too expensive.”

To further alleviate any concerns with bidding, Carter offered one more observation for the board to consider.

“Haley Ward is connected with many contractors throughout Maine. In talking with some of those contractors in relation to this, I am aware of at least two contractors that are going to bid on this project aggressively,” Carter said.

The project is slated to go out to bid Aug. 27 and officials expect to receive bids back around Sept. 27.

Engineering Director Travis Noyes, of Haley Ward, reminded selectmen on Tuesday that after agreeing to a contract last year, a schedule was established for the project and that has been met.

“We’re now in a place where we’ve gone through conceptual design, design development and construction documents,” Noyes said. “This project has been vetted, it’s been thoroughly reviewed … with regard to both of the chiefs input, the town’s input and the committee’s input.”

The next step in the project, he said, is heading toward bidding and construction.

Project planning began on Oct. 2, 2020. Following the projected timeline, the goal is to begin occupying the new space by the end of December 2022, though this is subject to change. A committee has been arranged comprised of town officials and other stakeholders in the project. Haley Ward Inc., of Bangor, has been working with the town on the project.

When complete, the public safety building will include several features to benefit both the fire and police departments. Both will have separate entrances to their respective sides of the building, with added security features and upgrades from the facilities that both departments currently use. These upgrades include a drive-thru bay for fire trucks and a sally port for the police department.

Security features will also be upgraded; a chain-link fence will run from the front and side of the building to the back of the property, according to Police Chief David Bucknam. He added that security cameras will also be installed, which will monitor traffic on East Madison Road as well as the parking spaces at the new building. Concrete security bollards will also be installed around the property.

“When we bring a subject in for processing we’ll be able to go in through a closed gate, then into a secure sally port before entering the building,” Bucknam said.

In order to access the police department and other secure areas in the building, a key card or access code will be required.

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