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Stonington delays awarding federal water‑line bid while low bidder completes SAM registration
Summary
The Board of Selectmen gave the low bidder one week to register with SAM to comply with a federal grant requirement and tabled award; town staff said a $1.9 million federal grant funds the Pawcatuck/Greenhaven water-loop project and about $1.6 million remains in grant funds after contingencies.
The Stonington Board of Selectmen on Sept. 24 tabled award of a bid for a federally funded water-line project in Pawcatuck (Greenhaven area) because the apparent low bidder was not yet registered in the federal System for Award Management (SAM), a requirement to accept grant funds.
Officials said the town secured a roughly $1.9 million federal grant to complete a water-loop that will improve fire-safety flow in a currently dead‑end section of Pawcatuck. The board gave the low bidder one week to complete SAM registration; if the bidder does not register, the town will award the contract to the next qualified bidder that is registered.
The board noted the package of bids came in close and under the remaining grant funds. "We have about 1.6 million left in the grant and even with the contingency," a board member said, and thanked the town engineer and volunteer contributors who helped assemble the successful federal application.
Selectmen said, if the low bidder completes registration within the week and reference checks are satisfactory, work could begin this fall and be completed in the spring. The board expects to vote on the award at its next meeting and invited the town engineer (Chris Greenhalgh) to attend that meeting to answer any final questions.
The board's action was procedural: tabling the award to allow federal-registration compliance, while preserving the bid process and schedule for the project to proceed.
