Low bid contractor pulls out of water tower demolition.
Volatile scrap metal prices caused a contractor to back out of its low bid of $62,204 to dismantle the Green Acres water storage tank in the Town of Tonawanda.
Apollo Dismantling Services of Niagara Falls was awarded the job at the Town Board’s June 17 meeting but told town officials in a letter dated June 19 that its scrap metal buyer could not honor the price provided in May.
“We attempted to renegotiate the price on recycled iron with Niagara Metals, but they would not buy the steel at the guaranteed price they provided Apollo in May,” the company’s president, Samuel M. DeFranks, wrote.
The Town Board at its regular meeting Monday rescinded the award and gave it to the next-lowest bidder, Regional Environmental Demolition, for $112,223.
“They were very happy when I called them,” Michael J. Kaiser, director of the town’s Technical Support Department, said of Regional. “In fact, when I told them, they wanted to do it the next day. I said, ‘No, that can’t happen.’ ”
Demolition could begin as early as later this month, Kaiser said, and Apollo will receive its $3,000 bid bond deposit because the project did not have to go out for bids again.
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