After approving the purchase of $20,000 in granite curbing for soon-to-come sidewalk “bumpouts” on Elm Street, officials this month authorized the purchase of about $19,000 in bricks for the project.
The low bidder, the Bridgeport-based Homer C. Godfrey Co. ($18,404.75), came in with a far lower price than the town’s accustomed provider, Stamford-based Paramount Stone ($31,500), according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
The “Garden Blend Paver” brick aka “New Canaan brick” is manufactured in Watsontown, Pa. https://watsontownbrick.com/products/garden-blend-paver/
“I was shocked at Paramount’s price,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their Feb. 11 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
He continued: “The pricing had been switched in the past, where Paramount was actually lower than Godfrey. And I was intrigued by it. So I called and verified from both suppliers and that’s their number. ButI didn’t understand—Paramount was making mention that they had to have a ship go out and find it, come back. They didn’t necessarily have it. So maybe that was the problem. Originally we were buying from Homer C. Godfrey, from say 2001 on. The past four years or so, the price has flipped and we started buying from Paramount. And now it seems they’re coming back the other way. But it was a substantial change. It’s $1 to $1.75. That’s a substantial amount of difference for brick.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with Godfrey.
Mann said the funds are available in DPW’s sidewalk management budget and will be used to install “bumpouts” on the southern side of Elm Street. Bumpouts are planned for the area in front of the “Bank of America” building opposite The Playhouse, and on both the eastern and western corners of South Avenue and Elm Street, on the southern side.
“We’ll be looking to go to bid on this project within the next couple of weeks, and then hopefully start construction whenever the snow clears and when the frost is out of the ground,” Mann said of the widely anticipated installation. “So hopefully April, May.”
The selectmen asked how Mann knows that New Canaan is getting the quality and color of brick that it wants (it’s called “Watsontown Garden Blend” and is known to area masonry companies as “the New Canaan brick”) and whether the town ever buys in bulk to avoid price increases such as Paramount’s (there are some on pallets but there’s limited room at the Highway Department).
When Mann said that the town keeps “several pallets in stock,” Carlson said wryly, “For all that repair work that we have to do.” (The first selectman in the past has referred to the many complaints her office receives regarding protruding or otherwise displaced sidewalk bricks downtown.)
Karl said, “It’s part of our look.”
Carlson said, “The price of beauty. The price of beauty.”