Gilford Police Dept. project $17,500 over budget

GILFORD — Selectmen learned yesterday that the company doing the excavation for the town's police station expansion have removed 220 yards of ledge and the cost of ledge removal has exceeded the budgeted amount by $17,500.

Town Administrator Scott Dunn said everyone involved knew there was ledge at the site of the planned expansion, however he said even keeping the excavation at a bare minimum led to the cost overrun.

"So where does (the money) come from," Dunn asked.

Selectman Gus Benevides said the budget was very tight to begin with but he wanted to know how the town could "ethically, legally, and morally" spend more than the budgeted amount.

Dunn said he didn't have an answer but offered some ideas such as taking the money from a different department or going back to the voters in 2016 to get additional money to cover the overrun.

He explained that in the time that elapsed since voters passed the $1.213-million warrant article until the time the contract was actually signed by the town and the contractor, the cost of raw materials including cement mix, steel and lumber has risen – effectively eliminating the 10-percent contingency built into to project.

Selectmen decided not to do anything, meaning the project should continue with the expectation that there will be savings from the rest of the construction.

Selectman Chan Eddy said he learned there have been some modifications to the original plan and they will now pin the building and allow a wall to be poured directly on to the ledge, instead of excavating the ledge to make space for a poured foundation.

Additionally, Dunn said he also learned that it will cost $14,520 to have a materials test. The contract has $3,500 built into it for that and Dunn described it as an insurance-type test.

He said the testing included a long list of material including soils, sieves, steel, concrete and asphalt and not just the test of the strength of the concrete.

When asked, Public Works Director Peter Nourse said he rarely saw contracts without materials testing.

Initially Selectmen Richard Grenier and Benevides were against paying for the materials test however Benevides said he would support the materials test and would not be voting with them if they chose to forgo it.

The selectmen told Dunn to approve the materials testing as requested.