Rebidding four contracts for plumbing, electrical, mechanicals and painting for the new firehouse reduced the cost by $421,525, but still requires the Firehouse Committee to make further cuts of more than half a million dollars.
“It’s painful,” said First Selectman Matt Riiska. “We are still looking at things we can trim.”
The first bids were substantially higher than estimates previously given to the Firehouse Committee. After months of eliminating desirable but non-essential items, the committee had pared the cost down to $8.3 million, with another million-plus in “soft costs” that might or might not be used. But uncertainty in the marketplace resulting from tariffs threatened by the Trump administration boosted the cost to $9.38 million without any contingency funding factored in.
The next round of cutting will slash items more deeply desired by the firefighters, possibly eliminating features such as a garage for miscellaneous apparatus, the ventilation system at the top of the building and the tower for drying equipment after fires.
“We still have a long way to go [to reach the town-approved level of $9.5 million],” Riiska said, “but we remain focused on getting a project completed that is functional, esthetically pleasing and that will meet the needs of the firefighters and the town.”
He has yet to hear back from Firehouse Committee members but has talked with both the architect and the construction management firm asking them to sharpen their pencils.
He is baffled by some of the figures in the bids submitted. Plumbing, for instance, was reduced by $233,400 in the second bid, leaving it only slightly above the original estimate. The economic uncertainty emanating from Washington has contractors scrambling to cover their anticipated costs, but Riiska fears there is also an element of greed. “They have to increase their costs to cover the tariffs, but maybe they just add a little more for themselves,” he said.
He conjectured that the town can find future economies. “We can probably get a local contractor to build the three-bay garage for half the bid price because no state and federal grants would be used,” he said. Accepting government money requires that workers be paid prevailing union wages.
The Connecticut Department of Labor publishes prevailing wage rates annually, which include both an hourly base rate and fringe benefits. Electricians, for instance, would earn between $53.32 and $75.17 per hour, while a general laborer could expect $40 an hour.
As of Jul 17, 2025, the average hourly pay for a licensed plumber in Connecticut is $33.96 an hour.