The contract, awarded after a third round of bidding, does not include repairs to a fence hit by a driver on the top floor.
Patch Staff
|Updated Fri, Nov 15, 2024 at 10:23 am ET
TOMS RIVER, NJ — Nine months after a contract to make repairs to the municipal garage was pulled from the agenda, the Toms River Township Council has approved the award of a contract to address issues with the building.
The contract awarded to Concrete Strategies LLC, of St. Louis, Missouri, is for a total not to exceed $306,562.
A review of the bid specifications shows the package is a scaled-back version of the original bid package that was pulled from the council agenda in February that Mayor Daniel Rodrick repeatedly derided at the time as spending $500,000 on paint.
On Wednesday night, Rodrick was critical of the bid timeline the first time the repair package was advertised, saying the timeline was too short and didn't provide time to gather enough interest. The package at that time was put out to bid on Dec. 22, 2023, with a bid due date of Jan. 11, 2024. Only one vendor bid on the project at that time: Brave Industrial Paint LLC of Long Branch, for $497,800, according to the bid documents publicly available on OpenGov.com, a government project bidding website. The resolution to award that bid was for $524,800 but the reason for the discrepancy is unclear.
Rodrick ordered a review of the repair package by an outside engineering firm — former township engineer Wendy Birkhead had resigned by then — and the project was rebid in May.
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There were two changes to the bid package in May: the removal of a line item to replace timber rails on the top floor of the garage that separate the middle rows of parking stalls, for which Brave Industrial had bid $45,500, and a reduction in the construction allowance from $30,000 to $5,000.
The new package, listed May 11 with bids due June 12, drew five bidders with bids ranging from $430,150 to $491,449.45. Brave Industrial Paint was the lowest bidder, but the project again was pulled, this time to allow a review by John Mele, who was hired as township engineer in June.
For the third round of bidding, the package was rewritten. Instead of breaking down the repairs by garage level — the first two packages grouped line items by the top side and undersides of the top deck and the second level — the new package consolidated similar repairs into singe line-items.
It also moved five items that were part of the main bid last December into a secondary group labeled "Additional Alternate Improvement Options."
The main package includes concrete repairs where the concrete has cracked from water intrusion and rebar has been exposed, epoxy injections to repair cracks, hollow structural steel support posts and structural support angles, structural concrete, and the scraping, cleaning and painting of steel and drain pipes. Concrete surfaces would be recoated, two new drain caps installed and there is a line item for "shoring," which was identified on both levels on the first package. The construction allowance is $10,000.
The additional alternate items included putting new filler in existing joints and replacing building expansion joint material, repairing and rebuilding masonry — to address crumbling stucco — and timber replacement on the top level of the garage, along with powerwashing concrete. Concrete Strategies bid $144,820 on those items.
The combined cost of the main package and the alternate items would be $451,382 if Toms River chose to move forward with the additional items. It was not clear Wednesday night whether those items might be addressed at a later date.
Councilman Jim Quinlisk questioned the difference in the costs of the bids on Wednesday night, prompting Rodrick to accuse him of being angry that the original bidder, Brave Industrial, did not win the bid.
Rodrick took it a step further, saying "Do you have any relationship with the company?" Quinlisk replied, "Would you repeat the accusation?"
"It's not an accusation it's a question. Do you have any relationship with the company?" Rodrick repeated, and as Quinlisk tried to reply, began shouting him down, saying "You're hesitating. You won't answer the question."
Quinlisk owns Abby Lifts, a company that installs stair lifts and elevators in private homes for people who have mobility issues. Brave Industrial Paint does not do private residential projects, instead focusing on large industrial projects including "the restoration and preservation of steep superstructures," according to its LinkedIn profile.
None of the work approved Wednesday addresses damage caused when a vehicle hit the fencing on the top level of the garage in late summer. Two township vehicles, caution tape and chain-link fencing block access to the parking spots where the crash happened, and where the fencing is bent out away from the building. Assistant township attorney Peter Pascarella said those repairs are being handled through insurance.