The Westchester Village Board of Trustees has accepted a bid from Christopher B. Burke Engineering, LTD. for a contract for a cemetery pond dredging project during a recent meeting.
Under the Design Build Contract, the guaranteed maximum price for the project is $457,133 with a substantial amount of the work slated for completion by December.
“We’re just looking to get the work done at the best price possible to alleviate the problem that is ongoing over there,” Stefan Hanus, the village’s finance accountant, said in a September 27 board meeting.
During the meeting, a few people who live in the village asked trustees about the proposal and the bid to maintain the retention ponds in the cemetery. They wanted to know the village’s level of responsibility for the cemetery, how they tried to find the best price, and why the project needed to be done so badly.
Village officials gave a brief overview of the project and shared how two retention ponds desperately needed attention since they haven’t been touched in the last four decades. Trustees said they had been trying to find a good company and price since the beginning of the year, but most estimates were over $600,000.
The contractor they found is a single person who specializes in retention pond maintenance for municipalities. Trustees said he has special equipment and has done great work in the area, so they are confident in his abilities. The contractor has also guaranteed a maximum price for the project and will not charge the village any extra if there is contaminated soil that needs to be cleaned up.
