Sag Harbor Wins Extension To Review Sewer Project Bids

Sag Harbor Village has secured from two contractors a 45-day extension of the deadline for when it needs to accept their bids for the first two phases of construction in an ambitious public works project that would expand the village’s sewer district from the downtown business district into surrounding residential neighborhoods.

This week, both Thomas Novelli Contracting and Pioneer Landscaping and Asphalt Paving agreed to the extension, which will give the village until mid-December to review the bids for ways to cut costs.

Last month, the low bids for two separate construction projects came in at about $13 million total. Before they were opened, Trustee Aidan Corish said Mark Wagner of IMEG, the village’s engineering consultant for the project, had estimated that the total cost would be about $9 million for both projects, one on the Southampton side of the village and one on the East Hampton side. The village only has $12 million in grant commitments for the project at this time.

Corish, who has been the village’s point man on the project, said after the bids came in high last month that Wagner would review them, searching for places where cuts could be made that would not require the bids to be rejected and the process started all over.

Contractors are only required to commit to their bids for 45 days after they are opened. That deadline passes this week, on Thursday, October 24.

“We have to do our due diligence but we have to make sure this project is done on schedule,” said Mayor Tom Gardella. “It looks like things are progressing, and we are all on the same page.”

In recent years, the village has been aggressively seeking grant money from both the Southampton and East Hampton Town community preservations funds as well as Suffolk County, New York State and the federal government so that it can extend the sewer district into noncommercial areas that are served with old-fashioned septic systems. Connecting houses that are the closest to Sag Harbor Bay and Sag Harbor Cove will reduce the amount of nitrogen polluting the water.

Earlier this year, the village accepted a master plan that Wagner completed for the project that divides the village into different sewersheds that are ranked by priority. The first two designated for connection to the sewer plant are Sewershed K, which would cover Bridge, Meadow and Garden streets on the Southampton Town side of the village, and Sewershed L, which includes portions of Rysam and Division streets, mostly on the East Hampton side.