Submitted by Mary Ann McGann
A protest filed by one of the vendors who bid on the contract for the summer work on Kehler Stadium will delay the project by at least six weeks and may impact fall sports for Westfield Public Schools, Business Administrator Dana Sullivan announced at a recent Board of Education meeting.
Work on Kehler Stadium to replace the turf field, track, blacktop, and bleachers, and to renovate the bathrooms was scheduled to begin early May 2018 after the contract was awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, Your Way Construction, Inc. of Irvington. The Board approved the Kehler contract on March 19.
“The district’s athletic department worked to relocate Spring sports in order for work on the stadium to begin on time,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan reported that H & S Construction and Mechanical, Inc. of Elizabeth, the third lowest bidder in the process, filed a bid protest which was denied on April 13 by the Honorable Karen M. Cassidy who presided over the complaint proceedings in the Superior Court of the County of Union.
On April 16, H & S Construction and Mechanical filed an appeal which will be heard on June 7.
“The original complaint by H&S was denied by Judge Cassidy. Therefore, we feel this appeal lacks merit and may seriously impact our fall sports program,” Sullivan said, adding that the delay could be longer if an immediate decision is not made on the appeal. “If H&S is successful, the second lowest bidder will have a claim to the Kehler Stadium contract at an additional cost of approximately $250,000, which H&S may also decide to challenge.”
Sullivan said plans for the Kehler Stadium project have been carefully reviewed for more than a year, involving architects, engineers, district administrators, members of the Board of Education Facilities and Finance Committees, and the full Board.
“If construction on the stadium is not completed by this fall, it will impact the freshman, junior varsity and varsity football program as well as girls and boys soccer and field hockey,” Sullivan concluded.
