The Board of Selectmen heard a proposal during its May 21 to allow for a waiver from the bidding process for the HVAC system at the Police Department, and to approve the contract to Control Technologies Inc. to complete HVAC improvements including the installment of a new JACE System, five VAV units and room sensors.
“The existing HVAC system has outdated software and control systems which are no longer available for upgrade or replacement, due to age,” Police Chief, Tad Dionne, wrote in a memo.
He said the project would be a total of $39,714.00 “which we are seeking to fund through the Energy Efficiency Capital Reserve Fund.”
Dionne said essentially, they were looking to be able to waive the bidding process so they can have one company handle all of the HVAC systems within the Police Department, and to be able to go with the company they have used for many years saying “our particular system has been maintained by Control Technologies for 30 years.”
“They’re also agreeing to do the maintenance on our new HVAC system,” Dionne said.
He said it will also be important to make the move in order to have the old and new system be able to work together, which they would be able to do by making the upgrade. Currently, the two systems are not able to talk to each other, which limits what they are able to do.
Selectman, Heidi Jakoby, asked if it was an immediate need.
“Would a bid process prevent you from being able to do things that you need done,” she asked.
Dionne said it isn’t necessarily urgent, but said he doesn’t want a failure to occur.
“The whole idea is to avoid this (from) being a catastrophe, it’s not a catastrophe at this point,” Dionne said.
Jakoby said she thinks they needed to have more information about the need to waive the bid.
“I’m just probably going to vote against the motion to waive the bidding process just because of where I’m sitting right now with the information I have,” Jakoby explained.
It was also raised by Dionne, if he does go to a bidding process and Control Technologies Inc. is the highest bidder, if they could still award the contract to them saying “because they’ve been servicing the building for 30 years and that’s what I feel comfortable with.”
“Would that be a situation where you’d vote against it,” he asked.
Jakoby explained after reviewing the rules, she noticed that they could pick the higher bidder if there are unique features.
“So, there’s always some flexibility within the bidding process,” She said. “But it’s important for the bidding process to see the options.”
Board member David Morin, made a motion to allow for the waiving of the bid process, however, a second wasn’t received, so no vote was taken, and the motion failed.
Board of Selectmen Chair, Bob Guessferd, said he would suggest they have specific things in the bid requirements for what they are looking for such as “familiarity with certain systems,” and other features.
