Town officials on Tuesday approved the replacement of sidewalks on Putnam Road, following a discussion regarding the use of a “new” company for the municipality versus a longtime partner.
Ultimately, First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of awarding the $488,543.75 contract to Stumpers LLC.
The Shelton-based company bid $10,000 below Peter Lanni Inc., a New Canaan business with a long and successful track record of work here, according to Tiger Mann, director of the Department of Public Works.
“Stumper is new,” Mann told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “I did reach out to the community to find out about them. They have been bidding on our projects. They had aggressively pursued this one. They went out and visited it several times, had several questions about the project. So I spent some time with the contractor himself and Stumpers was the restoration contract for Burns before Burns had a site restoration division. Now Burns has a site restoration division. They don’t need Stumpers anymore, but they were their site restoration contractors. So they did all their sidewalk restoration, their sidewalk installation, things of that nature. And according to them, we’ll be very well served. So while we haven’t worked with them, I can only tell you the relationship’s been professional so far with them. They’ve been very aggressive, very actively involved in pursuing the project. It is a $10,000 difference between the two, between a known entity and not. But it’s $10,000 taxpayer dollars. So I have to look at it from that standpoint, as well.”
The sidewalk replacement itself will take place after school is out this summer. It will cover all of Putnam Road, from White Oak Shade to the cul-de-sac, as well as Surrey Road from Putnam to South Avenue, Mann said. The sidewalks get heavy use in the residential “South of the Y” neighborhood.
Murphy Carroll and Karl both raised questions about bringing in a new company given the small difference in bids.
“It is only $10,000,” Murphy Carroll said. “And sidewalks are a 20-year purchase, more or less. And I don’t want to be unfair to a new company, but it’s a de minimus difference. And you’ve been pretty happy with Lanni.”
Karl said there is “no question that we need to broaden our contractors and do the right thing for taxpayers.”
He continued, “The other side of the argument that I’ll take is that this neighborhood has waited for this project for 10 years, at least. Having an unknown interacting with all of those different households every couple feet for $10,000, I do scratch my head a little bit, because Peter has done work in town. He’s done work in front of different residences and always been interacting with those who he’s worked for and in front of. Now, this could be an even better company with better traffic folks and better interaction, and it could be amazing. But you have to push the pause button and say, are we doing the right thing for $10,000? There’s definitely that conversation.”
Carlson stood firm in bringing in the low bidder, saying that it’s good for the town to broaden its network and that “I have always said they have to be the low bidder if we’re gonna broaden the network.”
“Here’s a company that has a record of doing good work for Burns,” she said. “And I think it’s important for us not to be too locked into one supplier in this community. It keeps everybody’s pencil sharp when you know that you’re up against multiple bidders.”
She said later in the meeting, “I think if we have a supplier who’s recommended by a contractor we use in this town—Burns we use extensively in this town, and they use them extensively—I think it’s fair to give somebody else a try. And I think Peter’s done a great job, but he wasn’t the low bidder. And I can’t in good conscience accept a bid from somebody, even if that is the higher bid to the taxpayer for, pretty much a known quantity. They’re a known quantity. And I think it’s important to expand our base.”