Government
‘I Am Worried About the Town’s Exposure’: Cautiously, Selectmen Approve Contract Change To Expedite Work at Saxe
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Seeking to gain eight or nine precious workdays after school lets out, town officials on Monday effectively expedited a handful of contracts connected to the Saxe Middle School renovation and expansion, totaling nearly $6 million. Facing a delay in the widely anticipated $18.6 million project—a holdup caused in part, officials say, by the EPA taking longer than expected to approve abatement and remediation plans—members of the Saxe Building Committee at a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen requested an amended contract for the project’s construction manager on agreements with five vendors. Given that the delay would cost about $70,000 to $75,000 per month, Mallozzi noted that savings here would come to approximately $18,000. The selectmen voted 3-0 in favor of the amended contract, though only after receiving some assurances vis-à-vis the town’s risk, since they were asked specifically to allow the amended contracts, totaling $5.8 million, “prior to the determination of the guaranteed maximum price.”
“So what we are doing today is saying to [construction manager] O&G is, ‘Go ahead and let’s engage these five vendors, but we cannot guarantee right now to the town’—which is what you folks have a responsibility to do—‘we cannot guarantee what the maximum pricing of this project is going to be,’ ” Mallozzi said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “So my deal as a selectman is: We want to save the $18,000 and speed up by eight or nine days the construction, but what is the risk to the town?