HOWELL – The Howell Township Council has voted 3-1 to rescind a contract with S&G Paving Construction and to award it to L&L Paving Company, Howell.
The $605,725 contract the council awarded to L&L Paving is part of Howell’s 2018 Pavement Patch Program. Work will take place on various roads and township-owned properties throughout Howell. Officials said the project will include milling, paving, infrared repairs and restoration.
The vote to award L&L Paving the contract was taken by the council on Dec. 11 following a discussion among members of the governing body. Councilwoman Pauline Smith asked for a separate vote on the matter.
“L&L Paving is before the Zoning Board of Adjustment. They want to be able to have an asphalt making facility and we have a resolution against having any more in the township and here we are awarding them a contract. I do not think it is right and I am dead set against it,” Smith said.
L&L Paving is proposing to develop an asphalt manufacturing facility on Yellowbrook Road, Howell. The company’s application is currently under review before the zoning board.
Deputy Mayor Robert Nicastro asked the council’s professional staff to clarify the situation.
Jim Herrman, Howell’s director of community development, said the paving contract under consideration was an open public contract for which the council sought bids. He said S&G Paving Construction, Jamesburg, submitted a bid.
“This was a contractor I had never worked with before, who kind of showed up out of nowhere and was the low bidder. They were substantially low,” he said.
Herrman said when the bids were opened, Howell officials questioned S&G Paving’s representatives about the accuracy of their numbers. He said Howell moved forward because “we really do not have much choice in the public bidding world.”
“On Nov. 15, we awarded the paving project to S&G. On Nov. 16, I received a certified letter from S&G requesting to withdraw their bid due to gross errors in their calculations,” he said, adding the township agreed to the company’s request.
The next bidder in line for the job was L&L Paving, Herrman said, adding that awarding the contract to L&L Paving “has nothing to do with the zoning board and nothing to do with the asphalt plant. It is public contract law and it is a public bid opening. I cannot pick my contractors. We are required to follow public law.”
Nicastro said L&L Paving “is not manufacturing the asphalt, they are just doing the paving job, they are going and buying (asphalt) somewhere else. They were the second lowest bidder.”
Herrman said after L&L Paving’s bid of $605,725, the next bid was $638,500 from Garden State Sealing, Tinton Falls.
Nicastro said, “Although I respect Mrs. Smith’s (opinion), I just cannot see how we are going to penalize a business that is before the zoning board. Removing our personal beliefs, whether we think another asphalt (facility) should be here or not … I just do not know how we can punish a business that is not even making the asphalt from doing the job and then saying to taxpayers, ‘Hey, we are going to give (the third bidder) more money. So we are going to spend more money because we don’t like L&L Paving, which is before the zoning board? I think it is bad policy.”
Following the discussion, Mayor Theresa Berger, Councilwoman Evelyn O’Donnell and Nicastro voted “yes” on a motion to rescind the resolution awarding the contract to S&G Paving and to award the paving contract to L&L Paving. Smith voted “no” on the motion. Councilman Bob Walsh was absent from the meeting.