The city council was scheduled to approve a contract for repairs to the south end of the boardwalk at a special meeting held yesterday, but council members decided to reject all the bids and try again instead.
City attorney Fred Raffetto cited a “very real potential for litigation” as a reason for starting from scratch. Raffetto has received two letters from the attorney representing the second lowest bidder seeking the contract originally.
At the Feb. 20 council meeting, the governing body was set to award the contract for boardwalk repairs to the lowest bidder, until the second-lowest bidder pointed out some possible defects in the lowest bidder’s application.
Raffetto recommended the city put off the award until a special meeting on Monday, Feb. 25, which was yesterday.
Now that the council has rejected all of the bids, the city will fine-tune the bid specifications and look for bidders again to avoid a potential lawsuit. They will receive bids on March 12, and will vote on the bids at a regular or special council meeting.
The boardwalk project requires about 75 days of work, according to city engineer Joe Cunha. The city is shooting to reopen the boardwalk on May 18 despite this setback.
“It’s going to be more challenging, but we’re going to do what we can to get it done on time,” Cunha said.
The city will fix the south end of the boardwalk, just north of the Casino, permanently after bids are received. The other damaged portion of the boardwalk, just south of Convention Hall, will be fixed temporarily for this summer, Cunha said.
“We’ll make sure we can get pedestrian traffic through the summer,” he said of the spot which is receiving temporary repairs.
Permanent repairs to that 600-foot portion of the boardwalk will begin in the fall, he said.
