Politics & Government

With State Ruling, Work to Begin On Braintree High Turf Project

After a second round of bidding on two synthetic turf fields for Braintree High School, the town now has a state-approved contract that means savings for taxpayers and a delay in home games.

The state Attorney General's office has ruled that Fleming Bros Inc. is qualified to construct two synthetic turf fields at following an appeal by another bidder – the second in a project that has taken significantly longer than expected but that has also saved the town a substantial amount of money.

With the ruling, Fleming, of Quincy, can begin work on the project next week, with a tentative completion date of October, Mayor Joseph Sullivan said. Argus Construction, of Bedford, last month, arguing that Fleming was unqualified and had not filed appropriate paperwork.

But in a decision that owner John Fleming received on Tuesday, the Attorney General's office ruled that his company has enough fields under its belt – six, one more than the five required in the second-round request for proposals – and that Fleming had five days after the awarding to submit the documents.

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"In all my 37 years I never lost out on a job for my paperwork or my qualifications," Fleming said. "We’ve been through this before and we’ve seen it happen many times. The facts are there.”

Update: Peter Salem, owner of Argus Construction, said on Wednesday morning that he was disappointed by the decision and in particular by criticism leveled at his company earlier this year implying that Argus was not in favor of employee rights. He said he has always and will always treat his employees fairly.

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He also said that because the state threw him out after the first appeal on a technicality, the AG's office should have acted similarly on this second appeal and ruled that Fleming was not eligible. Additionally, Salem said he was concerned about the nature of the second bidding process.

"They lowered the standard to allow [Fleming] to bid," he said.

Earlier this year, , saying that the company had not met the requirements of a local Responsible Employer Ordinance before the bid deadline. Salem argued that prevailing wage law on projects like this cover everything in the REO except the apprentice training program that he did not have in place, and that he only did not have it set up because of the slow nature of the state's approval process.

and left it to local officials to decide if they should award the contract immediately to Fleming, the lowest eligible bidder at that point.

Instead town officials , a move that delayed the project, though an appeal by Argus at the time could have pushed back the opening of the fields even more. The decision also ended up saving Braintree about $70,000, as the original low bid came in at $1.3 million and Fleming's contract, with some additional work added in the second round, is slightly more than $1.2 million.

“We found ourselves in the middle of two quality contractors," Sullivan said on Tuesday. "I believe both firms could do this job. But with this sluggish economy, we were caught in an incredibly competitive environment."

Sullivan said he was pleased that the AG's office sustained the position of the town, and said it has acted appropriately as a referee throughout the process. He would not go back and redo the decision to decline awarding the contract to Fleming after the first appeal, Sullivan said.

"There’s always risks in terms of moving the ball forward," he said. "The goal is to make up for lost time.”

Athletic Director Michael Denise, in an , said that he is finalizing a plan with other schools, including possibly Curry College and Stonehill College, for places to play Braintree football home games until the fields are ready. Field hockey and cross country may be moved temporarily to .

"It gives us the opportunity to showcase the sports," Denise said. "Despite the delay, I look at it as a positive because we have an opportunity to expand our field hockey and cross country down at the middle school."

Fleming will also complete work on the bleachers and install another lane on the track, all with the help of Northeast Turf, a Maine-based company that has installed more than 100 fields, including at the University of Maine, Harvard University and several professional fields.

“These fields are going to be first class," Fleming said. "They're going to be just as good as any college fields.”


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