CLARKSBURG -- The Selectmen plan to choose a contractor for the East Road bridge replacement project next week.
The board has scheduled a meeting for 9 a.m., on Wednesday, Aug. 15, at Town Hall, at which time it will award the bid for the project.
"This has been a long time coming," Carl McKinney, chairman of the Selectmen, said at Wednesday night's meeting.
The East Road bridge, which is a large culvert, has been closed since August 2011 after sustaining damage during Tropical Storm Irene.
Ten bids for the project, which include a base amount and an additive alternate amount for possible additions to the basic scope of work, were opened at the Selectmen's meeting Wednesday night. Only one of the bids was below the amount of Chapter 90 state highway funds the town had available to spend on the project.
"We think we'll have about $370,000 with this year's allotted funds. We already have about $300,000 and change," McKinney said.
The lowest bid was made by J.H. Maxymillian, of Pittsfield, which submitted a base bid of $274,276.05 and an additive alternate bid of $11,856, for a total of $286,132.05. The highest bid was made by New England Infrastructure, of Hudson, which submitted a base bid of $691,425 and an additive alternate bid of $22,800, for a total of $714,225.
Town Administrator Thomas Webb said Foresight Land Services, of Pittsfield, will review the bid documents and then make a recommendation to
In other business, Paula Wells, a member of the Board of Health, spoke about the town's practices in dealing with mosquitos following a recent inquiry from a resident.
She said presently the town contracts with the Berkshire County Mosquito Commission to perform surveillance of 25 known wetlands in town and spray culverts, catch basins and some wetlands with a bacterial larvacide.
"It's one of the most effective and least hazardous biological larval controls," she said.
McKinney said that pesticides were sprayed around town in the past, but in 2005, Town Meeting voted to discontinue the practice.
With the town paying $4,600 annually to the Berkshire County Mosquito Commission, he questioned whether the work the commission does could be taken on by the town's highway department.
"We might want to revisit this at the next Town Meeting," he said.
To reach Meghan Foley, email mfoley@thetranscript.com.
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