FARMINGTON – The Board of Selectmen accepted a bid to demolish a building on Church Street and construct a parking lot at Tuesday’s meeting, while awarding bids for other town projects.
The town purchased the 150-year-old former apartment house at 112 Church Street last summer for $79,000 with the intention to build a parking lot with up to 28 spaces. Voters approved the purchase of the property at a special town meeting held in June 2015. Over the past year, selectmen approved an asbestos survey and abatement for the building, which was considered to be in poor repair and an unlikely candidate for renovation.
Tuesday, the board approved a bid submitted by Jordan Excavation to demolish the building for $33,000, construct a parking lot for $69,000 and reconstruct a portion of Cony Street to regulate drainage for $40,000. The board opted to go with cheaper concrete slip-form curbing at $10,000 rather than granite curbing for $23,000. The entire project is expected to cost $149,245.
Money for the project is anticipated to come out of the town’s tax increment financing fund, which currently includes $98,265.63. That means the town would need to expand the fund by at least $50,000 to cover the expenditure this year. However, as pointed out by Town Manager Richard Davis, the selectmen have always set the Downtown TIF capture rate high enough to garner at least $100,000, so raising the extra $50,000 is not expected to be an issue.
The town had bid the Church Street project alongside a limited-scale drainage improvement at 219 High Street, where runoff has caused an erosion issue. Jordan Excavation bid that work at $9,123, with half of that funding provided by the Maine Department of Transportation.
The other two companies bidding on both projects were E.L. Vining & Son, Inc. and Bruce A Manzer, Inc. The time line for the project had not been determined as of Tuesday’s meeting, Davis said, but it was not expected to take more than a few days.
Five companies bid on the town garage insulation project: Broderick Construction, Farmington Quality Builders, Scott E. Nason Builders, Inc., The Sheridan Corporation and Upright Frameworks. The board approved the low bid of $21,401 submitted by Farmington Quality Builders, with the funds to come from the Public Works Reserve Account. That reserve account currently contains $46,960.
The selectmen also selected the low bidder for a project to install four indoor ductless heating pumps in small offices inside the municipal building at the cost of $11,543. The bid was awarded to ABT Plumbing; CJ’s Appliance, Dave’s World Modern Energy Solutions and Mechanical Services also bidding on the project. As only $10,000 was budgeted for the project, the balance would be paid for through the Municipal Building Reserve Account, which currently contains $4,170.
In other business, the board unanimously approved a liquor license for Townie’s Bar & Grill Inc., to be located at the previous address of the Front Street Tavern on Front Street. Owners Bruce Hanson and Laura Jo Blair said they were renovating the building and that bartenders and kitchen staff would be certified through the state’s Alcohol Server Training Program.
Why is it whenever there is construction to be done in Farmington and Wilton there is always the same two companies wining the bids it’s good to see Jordan excavation getting a chance.
If you add the cost of purchasing the house, the total for this parking lot is actually $231,000.00. That means each parking space cost the tax payer $8250.00 and we lost the property tax income that the town used to collect on the property. So after watching the school budget attacked over and over (which is about future generations) and the county budget pass without a hitch (millions to support a jail that employs a few people). I wonder where the line is between the people who complain about one thing but not another and our county officials’ fiscal responsibility and their personal political agenda in this community? This parking lot did not need to happen because there is a much larger public parking lot just 100 yards away that is barely used. We could have spent a few thousand clearing brush and placing more signs for the existing lot.