001All right. Good evening. At 6:00 I'd like to call the first selectman special meeting to order. Let's rise for the Pledge of Allegiance if you can. I said this one. I said this one. There you go. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> All right. Absolutely. All right. I've asked Jason to speak on the resolution ahead of us. Jason, if you can please walk us through this. Jason Morocco, director of public works for the town of Portland. Before you there's a resolution requesting that we you vote on a bid waiver for our um videographic recorder that we have at the sewer plant. Right now we
002have chart recorders that use nice round special pieces of paper and nice little pens and and draw on the paper to record our our numbers. That technology is antiquated like a lot of the um >> Thank you Jason a little bit. Is this for I thought this was for this was later. Yeah. Only. This is different. Oh yeah, you're right. This is different. This is for >> Yes. Let's start over. Reset, yeah. Yeah. Reset. Take your time Jason. First I'd like to thank the academy. Okay, so thank you Jim. Thank you for being on your toes. You're welcome. Jason Morocco town of Portland public works director. Okay. >> Okay, so Snyder's Snyder civil engineering. So as you know we went out for the RFP for um request for proposals. We got four responses back from
003a few vendors. We got four responses back. Myself, Jim and uh Mike Pullen read each of one of those proposals. We graded or um categorized each one of those proposals individually came together as a group talked about what we thought about each proposal and then we invited three of those vendors back. Out of those three vendors it was kind of a synopsis that Snyder civil seemed to be the best engineering consultant to do the work that we want to get done on the well. When we met with them after we read their proposal, they seemed to have the best grasp of what the town's vision is as far as what we want for a building, what we want for any type of future expansion if we need to treat the water, how and if and
004possible we might want to hook up that new well system to our current system. They also had ideas of timeline, time frame, how fast we need to get this done, what the whole scope of the project was. So that being said, we are coming to you I am coming to you tonight for an approval to execute for Mike and/or I think it says and/or his designee to sign off with a contract with Snyder. On your paperwork in front of you, you see the whole amount which is 1.99 I don't have that number. >> 1.199 1.99 >> 199 Yeah. Oh 1.1 >> 1,199,960 dollars. >> Thank you. That is the total contract amount. That would be for survey, design, putting the plans together, bid specs, going out, giving it back to us, us going out to
005bid, them doing all the work associated with bringing on the contractor to do the work, the construction inspection and the closeout documents and any document any other permits or assisting us with any permits or paperwork that we need to get to the state furthermore. What we're going to do is if the resolution passes, what we're going to do is only award them the design phase and the the design the the survey, the design and the plan phase which would be um 564,315 dollars. The reason for that is cuz it works better with talking with finance for the way that the bonding is going to work out. So we would um necessarily bond the that amount and that amount would be once that's complete we would start to the payments on that instead of having that
006interest be drawn out and then then go back and draw another set of bonds for the construction inspection and the construction together and have those two together. Talking with uh DPH there isn't a big issue with asking for this board to get into the contract with the 1.1 million with Snyder for the whole amount and only awarding that one section. It's just a little bit more paperwork on their end and they're perfectly okay with it. Um That's kind of it in in a nutshell. If anybody has any questions I'll gladly answer them. I just have So Snyder wasn't the low bidder but they're offering more in their bid than the others. Yes, so I we felt that Snyder had a good concept of what we envision as far as putting the package together and then
007also on the construction inspection end. A few of the other vendors you know, would say oh we're we plan on being there you know, let's say the project's a 12 months or 18 months long. Oh we're only going to be there for about three months of that whole period. Well there's there's a lot of you know, a lot of stuff can happen when they're not there. Mhm. Snyder was saying majority of the time probably 95% of the time they will have an inspector out there. You know, they won't have an inspector out there if there was grubbing or clearing or going but they plan on having somebody out there all the time. We can see that when we do other projects that when we don't have an inspector out on site all the time and
008then you know, town personnel can only go there on occasion that things get get missed. Nice street water man. So we were um we thought that was very good that to have somebody that would be there full-time. Yeah. Doing the inspection and seeing what's ongoing. Because this is a very important process and step to to uh do to for the town. I want to add to that also because of the importance of this project we have a pretty hard deadline to get it up. We know this board agreed on an extension of the contract with MDC. So that was part of the thinking at least with me. I know Jim was very concerned about making sure we hit the deadlines as everyone here is. So So I felt that they they were the right fit.
009They understood what our deadlines were. They had a pretty aggressive schedule that gave us the flexibility to get this job done before before we have any issues with MDC and and having to buy water at a higher price. So So it gave me a lot of confidence that even though they were they were a little higher but I think they're going to hit the deadline better and be more flexible with us going forward. So Yeah, it was a very complete our previous response. There was not a lot of you know, it was always the two approaches, right? You come in a little bit more minimalist and then you've got to pay for additional services as you go. That really was not they basically gave us a good complete vision. But I think more importantly um
010they they were they articulated in their response with the Q&A that we had um several different ways to try to make sure we're shortening the time frame and meeting the time frame. They were already thinking about those things. They understood that requirement and the impacts of of us not hitting the time frame. So which has obviously financial implications if we miss it. Snyder is one of the bigger and better Yes. civil engineers for water in the state. >> Without a doubt. One of MDC's civil engineers. So Yeah, yeah they they they they gave us a lot of confidence and when they walked out and they walked out of that room there was a lot of confidence. And just just the fact it's got scale scalability, right? You said that they're going to be giving us
011there's going to be things in their design and their option that gives us the ability to to hook up the other you know, what you were just talking about. That's that's a big deal cuz otherwise you kind of get designed into a into a little box and all of a sudden it's now two years from now and you want to do something and you just now you got to spend four times that whereas if you just knew somebody did it up front. >> Yeah. Whether it's you know, a valve with a shutoff just in case you needed XYZ. You want to save pennies, [clears throat] don't don't put it in but then later on you pay fivefold. That's the nice thing is the taxpayer is the taxpayer in town. Um Any questions for Jason on
012this? I think everyone has a pretty good handle on it. Mr. Dillon. Mr. Dillon. Yes, I I hear you. Do you hear me? Yes. Okay. Now I I agree with Jason. I think you know, having done many RFPs and and read through these things over the years, I know that I'm always a little suspect of an extremely low bidder or an extremely high bidder and you really have to zoom in on what's the best fit and it sounds to me like they've done their due diligence. I think the fit is right. So I'm I'm good with what they've chosen. Nice. Um Jim, would you like to make the rest? Yeah. Let's make a motion. All right. I make a motion we adopt the resolution dated March 18th, 2026 titled contract agreement with Snyder Civil Engineering
013LLC provide engineering and design consultant services for implementation of new production groundwater well for Portland Water Department. Resolved that the Portland Board of Selectmen hereby authorizes first selectman Michael A. Pelton to execute and deliver in the name of and on behalf of the town of Portland a contract with Snyder Civil Snyder Civil Engineering LLC for RFP number 2025-04A implementation of new production groundwater well for Portland Water Department. Total contract contract amount prior to any required change orders is approximately $1,199,960. The contract will not be executed until the State Department of Public Health DPH provides the town with the approval of drinking water State Revolving Fund DWSRF financial assistance via grant, loan or combination thereof. All right. Would like to second that. I'll second it. Seconded by David. Any further discussion? Call for the vote. All
014those in favor? I. Abstentions? Motion passes. Very good. Thank you. Excellent. Jason, thank you very much. >> [clears throat] >> All right. Any public comments? Anybody online? No. Okay. All right. So we'll make a motion to adjourn. Motion. >> Make seconds. >> trying to beat him to the punch. >> I saw you. You got to All those in favor? I. I. Opposed? Abstention? Motion adjourned.