Town selects Tighe & Bond to head sewer feasibility study

PINE PLAINS — Even in the midst of a public health crisis, the Town Board has forged ahead, evaluating proposals received from engineering firms interested in heading up its sewer feasibility study. The board met on Wednesday, April 8, to review its options.

The board organized the meeting via Zoom at 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The meeting was live streamed on the “Pine Plains Town Hall” Facebook page and residents were encouraged to reach out to Alice Hanback-Nuccio, secretary to Pine Plains town Supervisor Darrah Cloud, for an invitation to the Zoom meeting.

Cloud explained the board had a committee look at engineering proposals for the study. Before moving forward with installing a new wastewater treatment system to replace the town’s aging septic system, a sewer feasibility study must determine whether creating a wastewater treatment system could work in Pine Plains and how much it would cost. The committee included Councilmen Rory Chase and Don Bartles, as well as Candace Balmer, the town’s consultant from RCAP Solutions Inc. 

After reading through all the proposals, Cloud said a criteria was created, which included whether the engineers had experience in small rural towns; whether they had experience in Dutchess County; whether they had experience in grant writing and community outreach; whether their proposals covered the scope of services the town wants from the study; whether they were located nearby; what their timeline was; and whether they seemed “inventive, innovative and open-minded.

“We wanted them to be able to think outside the box for Pine Plains, so we get something that makes sense,” Cloud said.

Chase said the committee met a number of times during the last few months and went on field trips to neighboring communities to look at some smaller scale solutions for towns experiencing issues similar to those in Pine Plains. The committee received a number of different proposals from engineering firms. Chase said they looked at the successes the firms have had with an eye toward “affordability in both implementation and in operation and maintenance.” The committee ultimately narrowed the number of engineers down to three firms: Lamont Engineers, Tighe & Bond and Wright-Pierce.

Cloud explained that she, Chase and Bartles each took one proposal and called all the references linked to the firms. Bartles said he received positive results from the people who returned his calls about Wright-Pierce, but that he was advised to be very careful in writing out a list of deliverables to avoid being charged for any unwanted services. 

After conducting research on Lamont Engineers, Chase commented the firm seemed highly competent in exploring small diameter systems before noting that the firm hasn’t done any projects in small towns in the last six years and that its work is primarily based in larger municipalities. 

After investigating Tighe & Bond, Cloud reported that the firm has experience in Dutchess County and in small rural municipalities like Millerton and Hillsdale. Furthermore, she said the firm’s scope of services, timeline and grant writing experience fulfills the committee’s criteria.

Cloud said Tighe & Bond proposed a lump sum cost of $39,600 for their services while Lamont Engineers proposed a price of $29,820 and Wright-Pierce proposed a price of $48,900.

“When we really examined these prices, we felt there were varying amounts of what you got for that price,” Cloud said, adding that “there’s a difference between the lower cost and the best value.”

In the end, the board ultimately voted unanimously on hiring Tighe & Bond.