Building committee recommends $8.8 million Tower Construction bid for senior center

WAYLAND — November 3, 2023 — Wayland building committee recommends $8.8 million Tower Construction bid for new Council on Aging building. The Permanent Municipal Building Committee voted unanimously Friday to send the award to the Select Board, with Tower's $8.3 million base bid coming in 13 percent under the September estimate and all three alternates — a $15,000 patio, $100,000 screened porch and $350,000 standing-seam metal roof — accepted within the project's $12,185,991 allocated budget, leaving roughly $760,000 in contingency. Two other firms bid: JVW at $9.1 million and M. O'Connor Contracting at $10.2 million. Architect Bill Sterling pushed hardest for the metal roof, warning that asphalt-shingle leaks would force crews to "rip up the entire ceiling system" beneath sheetrocked trusses. Funding includes $11 million from town meeting, a $500,000 gift fund, $250,000 in ARPA money and a $100,000 Friends of the COA donation Sterling confirmed is already in the bank. The Select Board takes up the contract Monday.