Danbury Board of Awards approves multiple contracts, adds emergency Beaverbrook pump repair

The Danbury City Board of Awards voted unanimously on Jan. 8 to extend and approve a series of municipal contracts and to authorize an emergency repair at the city’s largest sewer pump station.

Chip Bolkin, the purchasing agent, opened the meeting at 10:04 a.m. and said Allstate Construction had agreed to hold its 2024 unit‑price paving rates for 2025. "They corresponded that they'd be willing to hold their current pricing for another year," Bolkin said, and the board moved to extend the existing Allstate contract into the 2025 paving season. Cara Prunty seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

The board also awarded several annual unit‑price contracts. Bolkin reported that Ferguson Waterworks was the apparent low bidder for expanded polypropylene (APP) manhole grade‑adjustment risers and that the City would issue purchase orders as needed. For line‑stop and insertion‑valve furnish‑and‑install services, the single bidder was the Jack Fairley Company; that award was approved contingent on the parties executing a contract.

On engineering work for the Water Pollution Control Plant, the board approved two Wright‑Pierce proposals. One proposal — an evaluation of plant loading and biohazards handling — was approved at a fee not to exceed $72,500 to be paid from the sewer operating budget under the city's on‑call contract. A second Wright‑Pierce award, for engineering to evaluate and restore a stormwater "plunge pool" damaged in an August storm, was also approved for up to $72,500 and charged to the wastewater‑treatment bond account. David Day, superintendent of public utilities, told the board that the August event likely exceeded the structure’s 100‑year design and that engineers estimated it was nearer a 200‑year event, prompting the redesign and rebuild work.

The board addressed firefighter occupational medical services after a contract executed in September 2024 with a GoHealth vendor was terminated on Dec. 24, 2024, for nonperformance. The Fire Department submitted Amendment and Renewal No. 2 to contract directly with Nuvance Health for occupational medical services from Jan. 21 through Dec. 31, 2025, supported by a sole‑source justification citing firefighter scheduling logistics. Board members clarified that the earlier nonperforming entity had been GoHealth and that the renewal would be with Nuvance. The renewal and the rescission of the prior award were approved unanimously.

The Fire Department also presented a purchase agreement from Firematic Supply for a new Pierce 107‑foot aerial pumper/ladder truck under a cooperative contract. The transcript contains inconsistent numeric formatting for the quoted price; it indicates an amount in the neighborhood of $1.9 million. Bolkin said any award would be contingent on execution of the purchase agreement and available funding; the board approved the purchase.

During the meeting David Day asked to add an emergency item for the Beaverbrook pump station, the city's largest sewer pump station located behind a Walmart. Day said the station pumps an estimated "1 to 2,000,000 gallons a day," that one pump was under evaluation and a second had failed the prior day, leaving a single operating pump. The board unanimously added the emergency item and authorized Veolia, under its operating agreement, to coordinate an emergency bypass pump — likely sourced through Xylem — and to proceed with an initial estimate of about $20,000 charged to the sewer operating budget. Day said larger repairs above roughly $100,000 would be charged to the Beaverbrook capital account.

All motions taken at the meeting passed unanimously. The board adjourned after the vote on the emergency repair.

What happens next: awards are subject to contract execution and funding availability; the emergency bypass work began coordination the same day under Veolia’s operating agreement.