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Kanosh council awards well-house construction contract to Tusher Contracting
Summary
The Kanosh Town Council voted to award the well-house construction contract to Tusher Contracting for the low bid of $871,068 and approved a bid alternate for a security fence; councilmembers said they will seek a change order to remove the fence-removal line item so the town can provide labor to cut cost.
Kanosh — The Kanosh Town Council voted at its meeting to award the well-house construction contract to Tusher Contracting, the lowest qualified bidder, for $871,068 and approved a bid alternate that would add a security chain-link fence (bid alternate 3) priced at $47,700.
Town engineering consultant Ben Cory told the council the bid process drew seven bidders and that the low bid from Tusher was consistent with the unit prices in the bid package. “We were extremely fortunate to have 7 bidders,” Cory said, noting the bids ranged from about $871,000 to just under $1.1 million.
The lowest bidder, Tusher Contracting, is a local contractor with prior work in the region; the town’s contract review and the town attorney both concurred that the unit-price math supported awarding the contract to Tusher despite a minor addition error in the company’s submitted total.
The contract award includes three optional bid alternates the council considered: (1) interior framing and insulation, (2) an air-conditioning unit, and (3) a six-foot chain-link security fence with barbed wire around the new well building, the scribe building and the two tanks. Council members debated the value of each alternate and agreed to award the base bid plus the fence alternate while seeking a change order to remove the fence-removal line item (so the town could perform removal work and save on cost). Council members said they would preserve contingency to cover unforeseen conditions and to keep funds available for the power line work needed to energize the project.
Council member Neil Shumway said the interior framing was the least important of the options. “I feel like that would be the least important for me. I think we could skip that,” Shumway said during debate. Other council members emphasized the value of a secure fence around the water infrastructure and said town labor could be used to reduce the contractor’s removal line-item cost.
The council made the motion to award the contract and then approved it in a recorded vote. The project retains an on-contract contingency and is scheduled with 120 days of construction time; engineering staff said the contractor is expected to begin once their current jobs permit and the town finalizes power connections. Town staff and engineers also noted the option of later change-orders to restore alternates if market conditions permit.
Votes at a glance - Award well-house construction contract to Tusher Contracting (base bid): $871,068 — approved (see action details). - Approve bid alternate 3 (chain-link fence): $47,700 — approved with plan to pursue a change order removing the fence-removal line item so the town can provide removal labor and reduce cost.
Why this matters: The awarded contract funds and schedule move forward a long-planned well and water-treatment campus project that the council said is essential to the town’s water supply reliability. Council members said securing the site and preserving contingency for the power connection were priorities before construction begins.
What’s next: Engineering staff will finalize contract documents and coordinate scheduling with the contractor; the town also said it needs to finalize the power-line plan with utility partners so the facility can be energized when construction is complete. The council directed staff to pursue a change order to eliminate the small fence-removal line item so removal can be completed by town crews, if feasible.
