Bids come in for demolition plan

CHESHIRE, Aug 26, 2009 (North Adams Transcript - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- STN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The town has received three bids from design companies to plan the demolition of the Thunderbrook Dam.

Town Administrator Thomas Webb said the companies Fuss & O'Neil of Manchester, Conn., Stantec Inc. of Albany, N.Y. and Milone & MacBroom of Conn. have all responded to the request for services the town sent out to plan the demolition of the dam. Webb said he and the Selectmen will be reviewing the proposals this week and should make a decision by the end of the week.

"We should be able to pick one of these companies," Webb said. "They are all pretty familiar with this type of work and, so far, the proposals seem pretty solid."

The design work is expected to cost under $26,000 and will be paid for by the Massachusetts Environmental Trust. The winning company will be responsible for assessing the structural condition of the dam and exploring removal possibilities. They will also be responsible for assessing sediment removal, ecological impact, species management, fish and wildlife benefits and permitting. They will also look at the road that runs alongside the river.

"There is an old road that runs along the river and we're completely discontinuing it," Webb said. "It was the original road that used to be there, but it has fallen into total disrepair. There's actually a paved road that's up the hill now."

The final cost of the project is estimated to be roughly $187,000, but

Webb did not want to confirm that number until the designs are finished.

So far, $87,000 has been raised toward the effort with the Hoosuck chapter of Trout Unlimited donating a $10,000 grant as part of the group's Embrace-A-Stream program. They have also raised funds from the Hoosic River Watershed Association, the Riverways Program and even the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. The town will contribute labor to the project using town employees and equipment for the work. Grants will fund the monitoring of the stream before and after the project.

Webb said he was optimistic that the project could be completed by the end of next summer. The project was originally slated to begin in the summer of 2011, but Webb said that could be bumped up.

"Ideally, we'd want to do this at the driest time of the year at the end of the summer," he said. "This summer there would have been no chance since we never had a dry time. But hopefully next year it will be dry enough that we won't have a ton of water to contend with."

The town has also completed the cleanup of downed trees from the December 2008 ice storm and is ready to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Webb said that the town has already received $35,000 from the agency and is expected to get a little more for this last round of work.

"It was a relatively small amount of work compared with some of the hill towns like Florida and Savoy," Webb said. "They suffered a lot more damage than we did."

To reach Ryan Hutton, e-mail rhutton@thetranscript.com.

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