The Town of Middleburgh will have to downsize—or walk away from—its planned ambulance and emergency shelter building after bids for the project came in $1 million too high.
The cost of the NY Rising project had been projected at $2.5 million--$400,000 of that engineering and “soft” costs.
But bids opened in February came in at just over $3.3 million, Councilman Mike Wilkins told Supervisor Pete Coppolo and the rest of the board at their meeting Thursday.
Mr. Wilkens said that because of the improved economy, contractors are coming in with much higher prices than even just a couple of years ago.
“We either cut the project, cut the scope, or abandon it,” he said, and since about $200,000 has already been spent on soft costs, “What we have to do is reduce the square footage of the entire building.”
One option is to reduce the 100-bed shelter to 50-beds, something that would also cut things like the number of bathrooms required as well as the associated mechanical, plumbing and electrical costs—all through the roof right now, Mr. Wilkins said.
“Either you’re going to cut the shelter in half or you’re not going to have it at all,” he said.
Councilmen also discussed the possibility of eliminating one of the two ambulance bays.
They plan to meet with the engineer Milan Jackson Jr., from Lamont Engineers, to see how to reduce costs of the project for his input, but voted to reject all of the bids. I
Because all of the bids were close and consistent, councilmen also agreed not to re-bid the project.

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Also Thursday, councilmen listened as Highway Superintendent Steve Kowalski reported making it through the recent snowstorms okay.
“There was a lot of snow and it came fast,” he said.
Still, the town is about halfway through its supply of road salt and what remains is rock-solid with boulder-sized chunks that are breaking chains and clogging up sanders.
“We’re doing the best we can to work through it,” Mr. Kowalski said, but there are some pieces of the highway equipment that’s approaching the end of its useful life.
Two medium duty trucks are very overworked for what they’re used for and that could shorten their life span, he said.
A new truck would take some of the load off the medium duty trucks.
A Ram 3500 pickup truck, purchased in March/April 2017, is not designed for what it’s used for. It gets 6.6 miles to the gallon costing $300 of gas every week. The pickup still has value but it might not be worth keeping.
Also councilmen:
• Heard Emerson Testing representatives Amber Emerson and Heather Colman make a presentation to the board to answer questions about drug and alcohol testing.
Their company, located in Oneonta, offers random tests, testing compliance, providing annual and semi-annual reports and providing supervisor or employee training. A number of Schoharie County towns and businesses use their service.
• Discussed the need to study solar ordinances from other Schoharie County towns before the board has a public hearing on enacting its own solar law.
• Heard that the Rotary is offering to donate trees and shrubs and wanted input from the Town Board where they might like to see them planted.