ANSONIA – Members of the Ansonia School Building Commission voted 7 – 4 March 31 to go with the highest bidder to renovate Nolan Field.
The recommended bid was an $8.5 million plan from FieldTurf, a turfing company based out of Calhoun, Ga. That’s $2.8 million more than the low bidders’ number. It was the highest of all submitted bids.
However, FieldTurf’s bid was based on its own site plan, rather than the one provided to bidders by the city. FieldTurf’s plans call for a complete renovation of Nolan Field. The city had only asked for new turf to be installed. FieldTurf’s plan contains work that the city had planned to bid out for at a later date.
A picture of FieldTurf’s site plan is at the end of this article. The bid also includes potential add-ons that could drive the price higher.
The money for the project comes from $10.2 million in borrowing that was approved by voters in a 2023 referendum.
The bid now goes to the full Board of Aldermen, who can vote to either accept or reject it. The Aldermen cannot accept a bid other than the one that was recommended by the commission, according to Ansonia Corporation Counsel John Marini.
FieldTurf’s $8.5 million plan includes the installation of turf for the football field, turf for two baseball fields and a soccer field, an additional grass baseball field, three concrete tennis courts, new dugouts, a new surface for the basketball court, and a new changing room next to the concession stand.
FieldTurf beat out the low bids for the project. The lowest bid package was a combined bid from DeRita & Sons to do site work, plus Sprinturf to install new turf, for $5.7 million. That bid would have used a site plan designed by DeCarlo & Doll for the city. Consulting engineer Ronald Nault had recommended the board choose that bid.
That bid would not have included elements such as new lighting or tennis courts, however. FieldTurf’s plan includes those.
In a presentation shown to the commission, FieldTurf representatives also gave price estimates for several potential add-ons. Those included bleacher renovations for $200,000 to $300,000, as well as improvements to other city fields for $575,000. The commission didn’t take any action on those add-ons. They could choose to purchase them in the future if the Aldermen approve FieldTurf’s design.
Commission Split Over Bidding Process
All commission members who spoke said they liked FieldTurf’s plan. However, not everyone wanted to recommend the plan right away.
Four members of the commission voted against the motion to recommend the FieldTurf plan. They said that, since FieldTurf’s proposal exceeds the scope of the original bid, the city should ask the low bidders what they would charge for similar work.
Marini had also recommended that the commission vote against accepting FieldTurf’s plan. He recommended giving other bidders ten days to come back with their own plans and offers.
“The alternate exceeds the scope of the bid. It’s not just an alternate plan, it’s a whole alternate proposal that covers A to Z of everything we were going to do,” Marini said to the commission. “That’s why I recommend this being the right approach here, and ten days means we can still be on timelines and get things done expeditiously.”
Webb Cook, senior vice president for Sprinturf – one of the rejected low bidders – said during the meeting that the commission should follow Marini’s plan. He said the bidding firms had no way of knowing that the commission would consider a bid so far outside the bid request’s scope.
“Pick two other people. Pick DeRita – I don’t care, pick Mountain View, pick H&I Stone,” Cook said, referring to three rejected bidders. “These are all companies that are either in Connecticut or do a ton of work in Connecticut on athletic fields and tracks. Get numbers from them. Compare their scope.”
However, members who voted in favor said they feared that any delay could jeopardize the timeline of the project. They said they didn’t think any bidders were capable of coming back with better offers. Bobby Evans, the director of facilities for Ansonia Public Schools and a member of the commission, said the commission’s work had moved too slow.
“We should not be here. The contract should already be done. The first meeting we had with the commission to look at everything, we needed to bring people in. I said this at the first meeting,” Evans said.
The deadline for the project is Aug. 15.
Andrew Dyjak, director of sales for FieldTurf, said his company is the only one capable of doing a project like Nolan Field from start-to-finish. He said that anyone could have submitted an alternate plan based on the bid specifications.
“There’s not another company in the state of Connecticut that manufactures their own turf, that designs it and stamps it in-house, that also has a customer service department, that is also a licensed general contractor. It does not exist in the state of Connecticut,” Dyjak said.
Chris Hulk, FieldTurf’s director of design, said his company’s proposal was the product of months of work and communication with the city.
“We’ve studied the site extensively. We’ve visited all the other sites, we’ve had multiple different meetings with athletics and the school and town to come up with what we thought would be the best plan for you guys,” Hulk said.
FieldTurf is a subdivision of French flooring company Tarkett. Their fields are used by eight NFL teams, according to the FieldTurf website. Their Connecticut fields include the Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford, as well as football fields at UConn and Yale.
The commission members voted as follows. Commission member Joseph Jaumann was absent.
Votes For
Amy Brejwo
Gary Cassetti
Michael D’Alessio
Bobby Evans
Rasheem Gonzalez
Joe Jeanette
Sharon Voroschak
Votes Against
Richard Bshara
Tracey DeLibero
Nancy Monaco
Joshua Shuart
CORRECTION: The headline for this article was modified after publication to delete the phrase “split vote.”
