Callicoon project solar update

Board asks bidders about profit margins

By FRITZ MAYER

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — If a town is too aggressive in bid specifications, will it result in fewer bids?

That was a question debated at the Town of Callicoon board meeting on February 10. A second round of requests for proposals went out last week to about 20 solar installers seeking bids on the scaled-down version of the solar installation planned for the town barn.

At the meeting, supervisor Linda Babicz said she feared the town would get few bids. She said, “It’s a matter of public record that the board is reluctant to go forward with the solar project,” and added that asking for the installer’s overhead costs in the bid specifications was going to be very “off-putting” to potential bidders.

Councilman Tom Bose said that the bidders didn’t have to fill in that line if they did not want to, and that the previous request for proposals did not include the overhead specification, and the town only received two bids in any case.

During public comment, resident Sonja Hedlund asked if requiring overhead figures would in the future become part of all bidding procedures.

Town attorney Marvin Newberg replied that the town could not know how it is going to act in the future.

Another resident, Bruce Ferguson, then asked if, when the town built the $1 million barn a few years back, it requested overhead costs from bidders. The answer was no, and in fact the town has never requested overhead figures in the past from bidders for any project. Ferguson suggested that requiring the overhead figure was “a way of killing bids.”

Bose said that some members of the board considered it a tool that the board could use in negotiating a better price with the low bidder.

Resident Dennis Finley, who has avidly supported the solar project, said that requesting overhead costs might be a good idea, but he added that he couldn’t imagine that it would not set a precedent.

At a site visit at the town barn the next day, only one installer was scheduled to show up to inspect the project site.