Salt Shed Sent to Bid Again

BROOME - At the latest Broome Town Board meeting on Wednesday evening, members discussed the newest salt shed roof repair bid, as well as the cemetery mowing dilemma and their latest budget.

After their last bid earned them no support from any construction company, Supervisor Steve Weinhofer suggested altering their bid specs, as he thought that it was sent out too late in the year and the completion date of one month after taking on the contract was too restrictive to catch anyone’s eye.

Following on his suggestion, the Board decided on a September 2026 completion date and forwarded the changes back to Lamont Engineers last month, who put them in the latest bid specs to go out once more.

Now, after publishing the bid, the deadline is slated for the November meeting next month, which might attract a company that is in agreement with the new completion date so that the Board can award the project in the same night.

In a similar vein, the Board also noted that there were no takers for the cemetery mowing job this year, which has likewise seen very little interest.

Last month, members were hopeful that someone in the highway department wanted the job and they could pay them overtime for a weekend or two, but Highway Superintendent Jason Wayman broke the bad news that spoke to the contrary.

“No one in my crew wants to do it,” he said.

Without any interested parties, the Board reluctantly passed a motion to cancel the mowing job for this year, with intent to send it out again come 2026. 

“We don’t have much choice,” said Supervisor Weinhofer. “We just have no one to do it.”

Finally, the Board opened the public hearing for next year’s budget, with Supervisor Weinhofer wanting to make one change.

After being petitioned by one of the cemetery associations for more funding, he suggested that the cemetery contractual line should be bumped up by $1000, with $500 coming out of the general repairs fuel line, and the other $500 coming out of the snow removal fuel line to compensate.

As Highway Superintendent Wayman was already clued in to the change, members of the Board saw no reason to deny the request and approved a motion to alter the budget.

With no other comments from the public, the hearing was closed and the budget was subsequently adopted as amended with a unanimous vote from the Board.