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North Adams Airport Receives Two Bids for Administration Building

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Airport Commission only received two bids for the Administrative Building renovation project.
 
Peter Enzien of Stantec Consulting Services, the airport's engineer, told the commission Tuesday that bids were opened Sept. 7 from DA Sullivan & Sons of Northampton and Burke Construction of Adams.
 
"We received two bids, which was a little bit of a surprise based on the interest," he said. "We thought we would get four or five."
 
Enzien said close to 80 different companies had responded to the project and pulled bid documents so the drastically lower number was surprising.
 
DA Sullivan & Sons is the low bidder at $3.6 million. Burke came in at $3.8 million.
 
"Both bids were in about 3 percent of each other so they were pretty good," he said. 
 
The city plans to move the vacant medical building on the north side of the airport onto the campus and use it as a new administrative building. The 8,700 square foot facility was built in 2001 on leased airport land, was donated to the city by Berkshire Health Systems. 
 
The structure will contain administrative offices and a small public restaurant, although that will be slightly larger than the previous version with 62 seats. The second floor will also hold offices, storage and mechanicals. The building will need to be moved, expanded and renovated to meet the airport's needs.
 
Enzien said sub bids were opened in late August, however, no one filed bids for acoustical tile and roofing. He said the bid opening was extended for the general contractors because they had to absorb these two sub bids. 
 
An application for a state Department of Transportation grant will have to be prepared and some other paperwork finalized before the commission can award a bid.
 
If all goes as planned, construction could start in mid- to late October.
 
In other business, Administrative Officer Michael Canales relayed a request from the airport manager to cut brush at the far end of the airport. 
 
"We had these done a few years ago," Canales said. "But there hasn't been any cutting done and the concern is that if we let it go, we won't be able to clean it but right now we think we can clear it."
 
Canales said he will work with the Department of Public Works and try to make this an annual city task.
 
"We should be trying to stay up on that, and we want to get an annual cutting over there," he said. "We don't want it to get overgrown in the future."

Tags: airport commission,   airport terminal,   

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Macksey Updates on Eagle Street Demo and Myriad City Projects

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

The back of Moderne Studio in late January. The mayor said the city had begun planning for its removal if the owner could not address the problems. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Moderne Studio building is coming down brick by brick on Eagle Street on the city's dime. 
 
Concerns over the failing structure's proximity to its neighbor — just a few feet — means the demolition underway is taking far longer than usual. It's also been delayed somewhat because of recent high winds and weather. 
 
The city had been making plans for the demolition a month ago because of the deterioration of the building, Mayor Jennifer Macksey told the City Council on Tuesday. The project was accelerated after the back of the 150-year-old structure collapsed on March 5
 
Initial estimates for demolition had been $190,000 to $210,000 and included asbestos removal. Those concerns have since been set aside after testing and the mayor believes that the demolition will be lower because it is not a hazardous site.
 
"We also had a lot of contractors who came to look at it for us to not want to touch it because of the proximity to the next building," she said. "Unfortunately time ran out on that property and we did have the building failure. 
 
"And it's an unfortunate situation. I think most of us who have lived here our whole lives and had our pictures taken there and remember being in the window so, you know, we were really hoping the building could be safe."
 
Macksey said the city had tried working with the owner, who could not find a contractor to demolish the building, "so we found one for him."
 
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