Hamilton Laundry: Still standing

Like the old Elton John song, the old Hamilton Laundry is “still standing.”

The City Council on Monday night will rescind a bid for demolition of the building on Hamilton Street that some day will make way for a 1,000-seat amphitheater.

With demolition permits approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection earlier this year, a $281,000 bid had been awarded by the council in May. The governing body was legally required to reject the bid from LVI/Mazzocchi Wrecking after it was challenged by another bidder, City Attorney Louis Rainone explained at last night’s council pre-conference meeting.

Long story short: LVI didn’t file the appropriate paperwork. The next lowest bidder was $90,000 higher, which would have impacted the budget, said Rainone. Councilman Jerry Scaturo questioned how a second round of bids would be affected after rejecting the first round, but Rainone was hopeful the bids would come back lower when re-bid next week and not “delay the project substantially.”

City Chief Financial Officer Frank Ruggiero expects the council will award a new demolition bid by next month’s meeting (Aug. 11), and work could conceivably begin within a month or so after that.

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0 thoughts on “Hamilton Laundry: Still standing”

  1. It was challenged because LVI didn’t have the proper paperwork filled-out. Now shouldn’t they have been told this when the whole package was submitted? And how did the ‘other’ demo company know this to challenge it when LVI didn’t even know about it?

  2. In an attempt to land a contract, bidders pull these stunts all the time to try and trip each other up, so it isn’t unexpected. Hey, at least the city may be getting a cheaper price for the project now!

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