Award <$600,000 Contract for High Canal Repair - YES

We took the unusual step of authorizing the Public Works Director to award a contract for repairing parts of the High Canal embankment (which was damaged by storms in 2018) before any contractors had yet bid on the project.

While we normally would not authorize the award of a contract without seeing the bids (and selecting the lowest responsible bidder) first, we decided to give the Public Works Director advance approval in this case because waiting to bring the bids back to Council would have pushed the project outside the narrow window for construction that was set by state environmental regulations.

In order to make sure this unusual advance authorization couldn't result in the Town entering an exorbitant contract, we stipulated that the advance approval was only valid if the contract amount was less than $600,000, a reasonable sum for the work to be completed.