Council Rejects Lone ADA Door Bid; Will Now Seek Cost Estimates from Contractors

Hurricane Sandy may have blown its way through River Dell about three weeks ago, but the effects are still impacting the day-to-day business in River Edge as the Council rejected the lone bid for a set of ADA doors to the police station. The bid, while received on Oct. 12, then sat in a safe until early Novemeber, as Borough Hall was without power for almost a full week.

The bid was the third attempt in moving forward with installing ADA compliance doors to the River Edge Police Station and Borough Hall. The project will be funded by a Community Development Block Grant.

"We had gone out for a third time to receive bids but they were due the day the hurricane hit," Borough Administrator Alan Negreann said. "Due to the lack of power Borough Hall was closed and we were unable to complete the statutorily opening of the bids."

Prior to seeking a third round of bidders, the borough had received a verbal agreement from Community Development to seek quotes from interested contractors of the bidding process again resulted in zero submissions.

The first two attemps at bidding the project resulted in zero responses. Initially the specifications not only included the doors but the masonry component as well to replace the door frames. During the second attempt, the bid specifications were split in half.

"Can't we go to the County, tell them we bid again for a third time and just get permission to send it out," Councilman Alphonse Bartelloni said. "I just want to try and get this going forward."

Initially Negreann had suggested the council attempt to rebid for a fourth time as additional contractors were interested in submitting bids but due to the Hurricane had been unable to do so.

But ultimately the Council expressed interest in moving forward with the project and seek final approval from Community Development to seek individual quotes from contractors.

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