WPCA authorizes administration to negotiate stormwater contract with Ty and Bond after single-bid discussion

The Town of Stratford Water Pollution Control Authority voted to authorize the administration to negotiate a draft contract with Ty and Bond for the WPCA stormwater project during its Feb. 26 meeting. Chairman Brian O'Connor said engineer John Casey had submitted a report recommending action but was not in attendance.

Board members discussed procurement procedures after Member (S3) asked, "do we know why there was only 1 bidder?" Chairman O'Connor replied that the RFP was posted and only one firm responded. Member (S2) suggested a reason for the limited response, saying, "I believe that, government's been putting out $58,000,000,000 towards or $5,800,000,000 towards, infrastructure improvements in the water sector. And at this time, most of the engineering firms are very busy ... This particular task is rather small and a lot of them do not have the time to take a look at it at this time." The board then voted; the transcript records vocal approval with no opposition noted and the chairman stated "so moved."

The motion directed administration to begin negotiations on a draft contract with Ty and Bond; the motion was made by Member (S2) and seconded according to the transcript. The board did not record individual roll-call votes in the transcript. The agenda packet included an engineer-submitted recommendation, but the town engineer, John Casey, was not present to answer follow-up questions about procurement or bidder outreach. Member (S3) asked that questions be recorded in the minutes or followed up by email so Casey could respond at a later meeting.

The action advances the WPCA's planned stormwater work toward contract negotiation; the transcript does not include contract value, timeline, or additional procurement documents.