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AUBURN, Mass. – Even though only two contractors showed up at the press box pre-bid meeting last week, Auburn School Business Manager Daniel Deedy was confident of receiving at least one bid for the high school project Wednesday afternoon.
“The fact that we had two contractors there and not 22 providers is not so much a lack of interest. This is a very busy time for contractors around here, but I’m hopeful and confident that we will get bids,” Deedy said at the school committee meeting July 11. “The fact that there weren’t a lot of people there doesn’t tell me there won’t be any bids. It wasn’t a requirement to attend the pre-bid.”
On Wednesday, July 18, at 2 p.m. at 5 West St., Deedy will be taking bids for the high school press box project.
The project is to build an 8-foot-by-24-foot press box with wings on either side for camera platforms, in addition to a cupola similar to the one on the old high school.
Two general contractors — Poulin & Sons Construction Inc. of Sterling and Lange Design & Development LLC from Sutton — showed up at the pre-bid meeting July 10. In addition, an electrical contractor, Baystate Electrical Contractors from Sturbridge, showed an interest in doing the electricity portion of the project.
But the last time a bid opening was held, June 25, no bids were made and the project was pushed back to July 18 for a re-bid.
The Cable Committee has budgeted $70,000 for the project, and it voted recently to pull its funding if the project was not completed with an occupancy permit for the first football game in September.
On July 10, however, Deedy said the completion date on the project is Sept. 5, which is two days before the home opener.
Joe Hamel, a member of the town’s Cable Committee, said the committee has put a lot of money into the project and “it has to be done.”
“There’s no reason why it should take five years to build an 8-by-24-foot stick frame box,” Hamel said. “So it’s time for it to be done for the first football game of the season.”
Check back Thursday to see what happened at the bid opening Wednesday afternoon.
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