Hollister
– Is construction firm C. Overaa and Company’s price tag for the
second phase of the Hollister Wastewater Treatment Project too good
to be true? One of the company’s competitors seems to think so.
Hollister – Is construction firm C. Overaa and Company’s price tag for the second phase of the Hollister Wastewater Treatment Project too good to be true? One of the company’s competitors seems to think so.
Overaa submitted the least expensive of five bids to build Hollister’s seasonal storage ponds, which will store treated wastewater during the rainy season. But Shimmick Construction Company, the second-lowest bidder, filed a protest asking the city to take a closer look at Overaa’s numbers, Hollister Engineering Manager Steve Wittry said.
The big concern, Wittry said, is the discrepancy between Overaa’s $8.7 million bid and the other four bids, all between $13.5 million and $14.5 million.
Overaa and Shimmick representatives did not return phone calls by press time Monday.
The City Council was scheduled to accept Overaa’s bid at its meeting Monday, but Wittry said the decision will be delayed. The extra time allows city staffers to meet with Overaa officials to go over the bid in more detail.
“We thought it made more sense to delay it a week rather than rush it through,” Wittry said.
If everything goes smoothly, the protest should only delay the bid until the council’s July 16 meeting, Wittry said, and that won’t affect the project itself.
All five bids for the storage ponds, which are the project’s second phase, came in well below the city’s $20 million estimate, according to an engineering department report.
Overaa began construction on the wastewater project’s first phase, the treatment plant, in December 2006. The company’s $57 million bid for the treatment plant also was substantially less than the city’s $71 million estimate.
City Manager Clint Quilter has said completion of all three phases of the wastewater treatment project, which also includes construction of spray fields or other facilities to dispose of the treated wastewater, is crucial to ending the city’s sewer moratorium. The city hopes to complete all three phases by December 2008.
If the entire project comes in under budget, Quilter and city councilmembers have said the savings will eventually be passed on to Hollister water ratepayers. Many local residents have slammed city leaders for recent sewer rate increases.
Hollister resident Ann Johnson said the rates are “absolutely” a financial burden. If rates increase according to the city’s schedule, Johnson said they’ll soon exceed her property taxes.
“There’s no way my sewer rates should be higher than my property taxes,” she said.
Johnson said she’s skeptical that the treatment plant will be completed for less than the projected cost.
“I kind of don’t believe that,” she said. “It’s just a feeling. I don’t have any data to back it up.”
But Councilwoman Eugenia Sanchez said the wastewater treatment project seems to be moving along smoothly. She noted that city officials present project updates at every City Council meeting.
“We’re moving forward,” she said. “I really like the fact that the public is informed.”
