Trustees award $4.4 million Crawford drainage contract, say work could start this fall

The Bronxville Board of Trustees voted July 21 to award the Crawford drainage project to the lowest responsible bidder, Inter Contracting Corporation, for $4,397,875. Village Administrator Jim Palmer summarized a multi-year design that includes creation of stormwater retention areas, a drainage channel across the village land commonly called Crawford Meadows (the dog park), and replacement/repair of sanitary sewer lines where inflow and infiltration are causing basement discharges during extreme storms.

"The amount again is $4,397,875," Palmer told the trustees, and said the village has applied for Westchester County funding that could cover up to 50% of the cost. He said the bid and contractor vetting were reviewed by village engineers and that the board’s vote was not contingent on county funding. Trustees moved and passed the award on a voice vote and directed staff to notify the contractor so it can begin assembling insurance and bonds.

Public commenters—many of them volunteers who maintain the adjacent dog-park and native-plant areas—pressed the village for careful coordination during construction to identify trees to be saved, relocated, or removed and to finalize a sensitive landscaping plan. Administrator Palmer repeatedly said the vote approved the village’s phase 1 component and that a separate landscaping plan will be developed with resident input; he also noted that, because a historic stormwater pipe has become landlocked, some tree removal may be unavoidable to correct the drainage.