Finance Committee - 12/16/2020 Page 6
Mayor Donchess
Alderwoman Lu?
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you so my question is just — this is $2.6 million dollar purchase and | just wondered. | think the
paperwork said it did not go out to bid. And | understand the paperwork said that they are the only qualified
person in the area. But it also made a reference to the Ordinance and the Ordinance gives like | don’t know 10
different reasons why bidding is not needed in this case. And I’m not sure which of those 10 reasons you know
this one qualifies?
Director Marchant
Maybe | can ask Kelly to address that one?
Ms. Parkinson
Yeah the Ordinance that we used was that it is essentially a sole source, because there isn’t another vendor
that qualifies in our region to perform the work.
Alderwoman Lu
And | just wondered, how do we know that if we don’t put it out for bid?
Director Marchant
| think that that’s a fair question. | can try and give a little bit there if that would be helpful. So we have been
working on this project to get it to this point for 3 years. We put out the actual purchase of the turbine went out
to bid and we got 4 bids back from 4 different companies. In that process, the hydroelectric, and so those bids
went out nationally and internationally and the one we chose has a headquarters in Boston but it is actually
manufactured in Czech Republic. This industry is small in New England; out west there’s a lot more
competition. There’s very few people who can do this specialized work.
So we work very closely with our operator, Essex, who has multiple dams in the New England Region and
knows who the players are and who are not. And we also work very closely with HL Turner and John Levine
who many of you have seen help us talk about the dams and these studies over time. They know this field
inside and out and they are the ones who we talk to about who could possibly do this work. And that’s how we
know that they really are the only one in this region. We'd be pulling from significantly outside of this region to
open it up further. And | do think it’s also important to point out to the public that Bancroft recently did a
project, not similar, but one that did involve coffer dams somewhat similar for Pennichuck and it was out to bid,
they were the lowest bidder for Pennichuck. They came in on budget and on schedule and Pennichuck had
nothing but good things to say with working with them. So it isn’t that, you know, we just — they are not just out
there. We did ask for references and we did follow this up as well.
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you for answering that. That explains very well to me but | wanted to ask the question. Thank you.
Mayor Donchess
Thank you very much. Alderman O’Brien.
