Archive for October 13th, 2011

13 Oct

Chippers Gets Vail Field Clean-Up Contract

Posted by Julia Carlisle in Vermont.

Woodstock Village Trustees Tuesday evening awarded the Vail Field  recreation area flood clean-up contract  to a local tree and landscape company.

Chippers presented the lowest bid for  the job  which will be extensive and will include remediation of the playing fields, restoration of the playground surface areas and many other smaller projects at the Village-owned property. The entirety of Vail Field was under several feet of swirling, fast-moving flood water from the Kedron Brook when Tropical Storm Irene sat over Vermont at the end of August.

According to Village and Town Manager Phil Swanson, the clean-up of the field will be paid for mostly with FEMA funds due to the fact that FEMA considers silt removal part of its emergency recovery mandate.

The work proposal  went out a couple weeks ago and at least six companies were asked to bid on the project. In the end it came down to Chippers and Environmental Solutions.  Chippers offered to do the job for slightly over $35,000 dollars. Environmental Solutions, which has also been doing work for the Woodstock Inn at the Woodstock  Country Club, offered to do the job for approximately $136,000.

There were several significant differences in what approach they would take to restore the property, including their approach or interest is re-doing the baseball diamond back to a higher standard than before.  While Trustees might prefer the Environmental Solutions proposed bid and approach that went into more detail about restoring the diamond, Swanson said it comes down to the money: Lowest bidder gets the contract.  FEMA is paying and would not pay for the higher award.  He  advised Trustees, “Chippers is qualified…giving the award to Chippers is the only option on the table.”

One helpful item for the Village coffers  is the Woodstock Inn will be contributing to Vail Field  its used chain link fence from its destroyed outdoor tennis courts at the Racquet and Fitness Center.

Trustees were also asked to consider  a project to change a drainage pattern from South Street through Vail  that would involve digging a trench near the  tree-line and diverting the water back onto the Woodstock  Golf  Club property.  It would be a shared project and require about $2,000 of  Village funds.