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Village of Lansing Trustees approved bids Monday for a new Village office.  The 2662 square foot $1.2 million building will house offices for the Village Clerk, Codes Department, Department of Public Works, the Village Trustees, and a meeting room.  Although the project will cost significantly more than anticipated a year ago, Mayor Donald Hartill says it will not cost taxpayers any additional taxes.

"Our goal is to have the shovel in the ground by the first of June," Hartill said.  "The expectation is it can be completed before the heavy snow."

Village Attorney David Dubow said municipalities are required to accept the lowest responsible bid.  He  explained that it is not unusual for a municipality to reject the lowest bid when it has credible concerns about the ability of a bidder to complete the project satisfactorily.  The Village received nine bids from general contractors ranging from $798,000 to $1,170,000.

"The low bid did not satisfy all of our criteria," Hartill said.  "In particular it was silent on the number of (previous) successful projects of this scale.  It was also silent on recommendations.  After discussion with our architect and our attorney we agreed that is an unacceptable bid."

Hartill had two issues with the second lowest general contractor bid of $879,000.  He said that one of the subcontractors listed has been accused of grand larceny, and added that seven light poles at an estimated cost of $15,000 were left out of the bid.  A third company's bid had no issues, but came in at $916,000.  Dubow and Hartill recommended accepting the second bid with the conditions that the one sub contractor be replaced and the light poles be included.  Hartill said the second and third lowest bidders provided many recommendations and have completed many projects of this scale.


Village officials originally hoped to begin construction late last year.  Officials had hoped the project would cost $500,000, but when it was learned that considerable site work would be necessary to avoid disrupting utilities the anticipated number rose to $750,000.  Trustees rejected bids last October when the lowest brought the project cost up to one million dollars.  While the bids accepted Monday also set the project cost to over $1 million, Hartill says the timing will help prevent more cost due to weather.

"There would have been challenges because they would have been building over the winter," he says.  "We did the right thing."

Trustees voted to give Hartill the authority to accept the second bid if the two conditions are met.  If the contractor is unable or unwilling to meet those conditions Hartill was authorized to award the contract to the third bidder, which would cost the Village $36,000 more.  In addition to a general contractor state law requires separate contracts with mechanical, plumbing, and electrical contractors.  This law can drive costs of municipal projects up by 20% to 30%.

"That's Wick's Law," Hartill said.  "We had no choice."

Wicks Law requires separate plumbing, heating/ventilation/air conditioning and electrical contracts for New York state and local government construction projects costing more than $3 million in New York City, $1.5 million in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties, and $500,000.

The lowest bidders won the three utilities contracts.  Petkosky & Sons submitted the lowest bids for mechanical ($54,277) and plumbing (31,477) work.  Panco Electrical and Maintenance, Inc. submitted the lowest bid for electrical ($77,890).  Hartill declined to name the general contractors until a bid is officially accepted.

Officials hope the building will be completed this year.

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