The replacement of the air-handling units that heat and cool Two Bridges Regional Jail has become an emergency, Correctional Administrator Col. Mark Westrum said.
With a deadline approaching to complete the work before the winter season and few options for contractors with the expertise to carry it out, Westrum asked the Lincoln and Sagadahoc Multicounty Jail Authority to make an exception to its bid policy and enter into a $500,000 contract with the Thayer Corp., which specializes in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, and currently has a maintenance contract with the jail.
The jail authority’s bid policy calls for requesting bids for projects that will cost more than $10,000. At least three bids from different vendors are to be received, according to the policy.
The jail authority voted to suspend the bid policy to award the contract for the replacement of Two Bridges’ air-handling units to Thayer on Thursday, Aug. 18.
The decision was not without debate. Authority board members David Sinclair and Charlie Crosby, both of Sagadahoc County, voted against the action. Sinclair is an alternate member of the jail authority, but was participating as a full voting member Aug. 18 due to another Sagadahoc County member’s absence.
“In this political climate, it’s dangerous to give out one-half million dollars without a bid,” Crosby said. “(Westrum) says they’re the only game in town, but the public doesn’t know that.”
Not following the bid policy for such a large sum of money “makes me nervous,” Crosby said.
Westrum said the replacement of the air-handling units is an emergency that cannot wait any longer. Since the jail was built about 10 years ago, the air-handling units have been an issue, he said.
The company that installed the units has since gone bankrupt. Thayer Corp. has done what it can to keep the units running, but parts are becoming harder and harder to come by, Westrum said.
According to Two Bridges Maintenance Director Jeff Rager, the units have no damper to control air flow.
In the summer, hot air is pumped into Two Bridges, overworking the air conditioning system. In the winter, cold air is pumped into the jail, overworking the furnace, Rager said. “The system’s been junk from day one,” Rager said.
Only a small number of contractors are qualified to replace the units, and most are already well-known to Two Bridges, Westrum said. “We’ve been led down the wrong path before,” he said.
The jail authority currently contracts with Thayer for maintenance, and the company is intimately familiar with the air-handling units, Westrum said. Thayer is projecting an energy savings of about $105,000 a year once they are replaced, he said.
The projected energy savings, based on current energy prices, is a low estimate, Rager said, and the jail may stand to save much more.
To finance the work, Westrum solicited three quotes for a five-year loan from financial institutions. The First offered the lowest interest rate of 1.95 percent, with payments to be made monthly. Loan payments will total about $121,000 a year, jail authority members said.
If the projections for energy savings are accurate, the jail authority will still have to account for another $16,000 not in the budget, jail authority members said.
If the jail authority enters into the contract, Thayer Corp. has offered to reduce the amount of its maintenance contract from $50,000 to $48,000, Westrum said.
With unexpected revenue coming in from contracts with Kennebec and Oxford counties (see “Kennebec, Oxford counties contract with Two Bridges”), the deficit budget the jail authority adopted for the 2016-2017 fiscal year will need to be revised, Westrum said.
While it may still be a tight budget for a couple of years, with the projected energy savings, the project will eventually pay for itself, Westrum said.
While the jail authority’s vote on suspending the bid process was split, the authority voted unanimously to take out a five-year loan with The First to finance a $500,000 contract with the Thayer Corp. to replace the jail’s air-handling units.
