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Contractor to honor agreement
(by Megan Burrow - July 16, 2008)
Despite earlier reports that the company backed out of its contract, D&L Paving has agreed to go ahead with an eight-town road paving project for the original price of $1,343,105.
The paving project was the first major undertaking for the Pascack Valley Cooperative Pricing consortium, a group of 10 towns formed earlier this year to bid jointly on capital projects and share services. The consortium was designed to save the municipalities money by streamlining the bidding process for major projects and consolidating resources.
The contract was awarded May 19 by the Borough of Westwood, the consortium’s lead agency, and eight towns from the consortium participated: Emerson, Hillsdale, Old Tappan, Oradell, Park Ridge, River Vale, Westwood, and
Woodcliff
Lake.
The plan hit a snag last week when D&L Paving, the lowest bidder, abruptly announced it could no longer complete the project for the agreed upon price due to the rising cost of fuel and petroleum-based asphalt. D&L Paving had informed the consortium that because of the increased prices, the added cost to the project would total approximately $140,000.
However, late Tuesday evening, it was announced that D&L had relented and agreed to honor the original contract. At the Westwood Borough Council Meeting, Mayor John Birkner delivered the news to the public and thanked everyone involved for their work in getting the contract signed.
In a phone interview, Westwood Borough Administrator Bob Hoffmann said the company finally agreed to the contract because, “basically, they had to.” He explained that the company has worked extensively in the
Pascack
Valley in the past and “ultimately it would have damaged their reputation and cost them money.”
He added that D&L has “always been a reputable business and in this case they did the right thing.”
By entering into the contract as a shared service, the boroughs stand to save on average approximately 29 percent, according to an engineer’s estimate.
Megan Burrow's e-mail address is burrow@northjersey.com.
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