BY CRAIG FREILICH

North Country This Week

POTSDAM – The Town of Potsdam and the villages of Potsdam and Norwood will be getting a better price for paving materials than St. Lawrence County will pay for their projects this summer.

The town’s highway superintendent thought he might be able to get a better price on paving materials than the county got in its bid process, and he did.

Superintendent John Keleher saw the prices the county locked in from Barrett Paving Materials in their winning bid.

He decided to ask bidders to put in offers in a separate process, hoping to see a lower price, and he succeeded with J.E. Sheehan Contracting of Potsdam coming through with bids on an assortment of materials that are lower than Barrett’s bids to the county. Barrett did not respond to the town request for bids.

Municipalities throughout the county can take advantage of the county contract, getting the materials they need at the county-contracted prices, allowing for frequent increases as the paving season goes ahead.

“Type 3 binder,” a coarse material frequently used to level out roadway under more refined layers, will cost the Town of Potsdam $45 per ton from Sheehan. That’s lower than the winning bid Barrett submitted to the county of $45.40 and lower even than Sheehan’s own bid to the county of $48 per ton.

“Type 6 top,” a more refined paving material, will be sold by Sheehan to the town for $49.20 per ton, a slight saving from Barrett’s county price of $49.48 and lower than Sheehan’s county bid of $52.50.

The town will get “type 7 top,” a still finer material, at Sheehan’s rate of $51.00 per ton, while Barrett’s price to the county is $51.38 per ton; Sheehan’s new price is well below their proposed price to the county of $55.00.

Keleher points out that the bids the town received from Sheehan Contracting can also be used by the two villages in the town, Potsdam and Norwood.

He estimates the town will use 4,000 to 5,000 tons of paving materials this year. At best that means a $3,000 savings with Sheehan’s prices.

When he issued the request for bids, “I was hoping it would be more,” but it’s something, he said.

Paving materials prices are largely dependent on the price of oil, and can climb if the oil price rises. “I’ve never seen them go down, though,” Keleher said, even if the oil price goes lower.