Bangor Finance Committee Approves Multiple Airport and Public Works Bids

[0:22] Susan Deane: We are live. Good evening and welcome to the regularly scheduled Finance Committee meeting. It is Monday, February 2nd, 2026. Members of committee around the table are Councilor Beck, Councilor Malheur, Councilor Faloon, Councilor Carson and I am the chair of this committee, Councilor Deane. Also present are Councilor Leonard, Councilor Fish, Council Chair Haas, Stephanie Kimball, our Finance Director, and Counselor Walker. We will start off with bids and purchases. [0:55] Carollynn Lear: Okay, so we have multiple bids tonight. The first one is an AFM plow truck for the airport. An RFP was put out. We only received one bid, and the bid was for $542,716,000, with it which included an extended warranty part of her the notify me system on the city of angora website 30 vendors received notification the airport budgeted the purchase for fiscal year 26 and staff requests approval through airport technologies any [1:33] Susan Deane: questions council [1:34] Wayne Mallar: i have just a general question because i get confused used. It's obviously less than the amount that we had budgeted. So where does the leftover go? Again, the question is what else can you spend it for besides a plow truck? [2:03] Carollynn Lear: It would go back into their budget. And if we wanted to use the funds, we could ask permission to use them for something else in the future well [2:21] Unidentified speaker (Airport Director): let me see how you're fine good evening assessor airport director to your question with regards to what happens with the funds that are left over so obviously during the budgeting process we get a couple quotes just to have a target amount in this case what happens with the bid that comes under the budgeted price we either reallocate that for all their needs as they come up within the airport. Something to keep in mind is again, that the airport is an enterprise fund. So revenues that are per federal regulations, revenues that are generated at the airport must remain at the airport. So as long as they remain within the capital expenditures or operations of the airport, it basically can be reallocated to the faculty. [3:12] Wayne Mallar: With approval of the council? [3:14] Unidentified speaker (Airport Director): Yeah, if it is a if it's a obviously an expense that is going to exceed a certain threshold [3:20] Wayne Mallar: then obviously that was that was my only concern is not that I didn't think you were going to be handling it properly, but I just thought I needed to be refreshed on because this was a more substantial amount. [3:32] Unidentified speaker (Airport Director): We usually see so any, expense that is obviously larger than the threshold and obviously would follow the procurement process. Okay, thank you. [3:44] Susan Deane: Any other questions? Entertain a motion. Okay, we have a second. This will be seen at full council next Monday, the 9th. And second up is baggage belt upgrade. Yes, baggage [4:07] Carollynn Lear: bill upgrade hardware and software. This is also for the airport. They're requesting to award this contract to Harris Hill Automation out of Poland, Maine. This is to provide and install primary and backup baggage servers and the TSA baggage inspection room at the airport. Three bids were reviewed and evaluated. This was the lowest bid and funds for the project have been identified from savings and other projects. Questions. We [4:50] Susan Deane: have a motion. We have a second. This is under our 250,000 threshold, so the second from this committee will move it forward. Yes, we do not need to go to full council. Next up, fuel farm and storage facility engineering services phase one. Okay [5:17] Carollynn Lear: so airport staff again is recommending approval to award this to Stantec Consulting out of Portland, Maine. Six responses were received and the selection committee evaluated them based on the criteria outlined in the actual RFQ. Stantec showed expertise and exceeded expectations with a high degree of experience. The engineers are based in Portland. They conducted, the airport, excuse me, conducted an independent fee estimate,, which came in at $995.44. But Stantec's proposal was well below that at $862. As such, the airport requests the bid be awarded to Stantec. Were they the lowest bidder? [6:05] Susan Hawes: Why don't we have Jose come up and give an explanation of the IFE process? Back [6:16] Unidentified speaker (Airport Director): with you, Assistant Avedre, Airport Director. When it goes to engineering services, usually the way the procurement policy is framed is that you do not want to award it solely on the value, but rather on a the way the procurement policy is described as on qualifications and the price amount. So in order to meet that criteria, the way we got to that conclusion is by getting the independent fee estimate. And that gave us a ballpark of more or less what would be an appropriate fee, and then look at the qualifications. When it comes to qualifications, we reviewed all six proposals, there were three that were kind of top tier qualified firms. And out of those three, Stantec was the most qualified that stood out from the three firms. In addition to the close proximity and given situations that we've had in the past with engineering firms based out of a much further away locations it made more sense for us to pursue it with stantec this [7:30] Michael Beck: May be related to the INFV, but I noticed on the actual pit tab there was no bit of mouth. That is, are they already hidden because of the INFV? [7:39] Unidentified speaker (Airport Director): Progress, so what happens is that in for professional services, you don't start with the price number because again there's instances in which might be a, you might get a lowest bidder that might have close to no qualifications but might still meet the bare minimum of the threshold, and it puts the city at a disadvantage to start with negotiating from a price standpoint, point them from a qualification standpoint. So once the qualification criteria has been assessed, then you go into a price. Negotiation, and in this case we did the independent fee estimate to help us better navigate through the negotiation process, and so because it was significantly lower, we feel comfortable moving forward here. [8:31] Michael Beck: Okay, but I don't know what I'm hearing. Working as intended? [8:38] Susan Deane: Anyone else? Well, thank you for that clarification. Entertain a motion. Welcome, we have a second. This will move to full council next Monday. Next up we have a bids and purchases for boom flail mower. Yes, this is from public works. [9:05] Carollynn Lear: We went out to RFP for a boom flail mower. It also resulted in one bid from the Alamo group for 43,981. Again, 30 vendors received notifications of this RFP through the website. They did budget a replacement for fiscal year 26, and staff is requesting approval for this one for 43,981. Questions? [9:32] Michael Beck: I'll come back. The original budget amount of $35,000, was that for one mower or were they thinking they could try to get multiple for that same amount or within that amount? [9:42] Carollynn Lear: As far as I know it was for one. Okay. [9:46] Susan Deane: So we're getting some good deals. Maybe there was a sale. It's for us. Any other questions? I entertain a motion. I move that recommendation. Second. Motion we have a second recommendation. Next up is emergency truck, again public works. This RFP. [10:17] Carollynn Lear: Resulted in three bids ranging from 63 to 35 to 66 514. Staff recommends awarding the purchase to Darling's Ford based on past positive experience, quality, and extensive history. The budget amount was 153 750 for the emergency truck as well as the next one, which is the small pile truck, or 76 875 each. The 65 200 is below that, obviously, so we recommend approval to award it to Darlings. Questions. [10:56] Susan Deane: On the emergency truck, help us with given that we're. [11:02] Susan Hawes: Are looking at potentially two vehicles from Darlings, does that give us a better price? [11:09] Carollynn Lear: I was not aware of any discounts from Darlings. [11:20] Susan Hawes: That's a good idea. Any other questions? Entertain. [11:28] Susan Deane: A motion, move that recommendations. We have a motion, we have a second. We'll go with staff recommendation. [11:38] Carollynn Lear: Again, public works, and like I said, the budget was 153,750 for both vehicles, so the budget per vehicle 76,875, and the award, the quote from Darlings came in at 66,893 for this one, so staff's requesting the award go to Darlings. Questions on this item? Entertain. [12:11] Susan Deane: A motion, we have a second. We will move staff recommendation of the small plow truck for sixty six thousand eight hundred ninety three, and last time we have the Sanford Brook stormwater trunk phase one, yes. [12:32] Carollynn Lear: The City Council will have a second reading to appropriate the 450 for the stormwater trunk line from unassigned funds on February 9. If funding is approved, we request that the contract be reviewed for approval for the city council meeting also. The work is to install the stormwater trunk line across the YMCA site that is currently under construction. Director of engineering requested and received three bids from contractors that were pre-authorized by the site owner ranging from 436,982 to 486,270, so we're requesting approval to enter into a construction contract with Sergeant Corporation in the amount of 436,982, contingent upon approval of funding by city council. [13:26] Susan Deane: So are you saying this doesn't go to first reading, this immediately goes to second reading because we've already appropriated the funds, or do we have a first reading? [13:39] Carollynn Lear: For this particular item, so we already appropriated, we took it to committee to [13:45] Susan Hawes: appropriate the funds, correct, so this will only require one reading because it's just to enter the contract. Okay, great, thank you. Entertain. [13:57] Susan Deane: A motion, if there are no other questions, I'll move recommendations. We have a motion, we have a second. This will go to full council next week on Monday, February 9th. Do you have any updates for us? That was all, that's the whole [14:10] Carollynn Lear: list, yes. WP has been out last week, the long list of January 31st calendar year end items have been completed. I'm planning on bringing interims to the next finance committee meeting, and the only other thing is budget season is official. Year, anyone [14:35] Wayne Mallar: have any questions for our finance doctor? I have a question in general. Have we set any parameters on the, well, the budget, I mean, if we said, you know, no increases, 50 increase, have we done anything [14:51] Carollynn Lear: like that as a group? We really haven't at this point. Should we? I would say that's up to you, [14:59] Susan Hawes: counselors, if you would like to provide staff direction. Well, I think it might be helpful to [15:05] Wayne Mallar: Start off by providing some, if you agree or disagree with it, that's fine, but I think we should have some input at the beginning. No sense in striving for ten percent if we're going to do five. I just want to let them know up front what we think we need. So I would, I don't know how we do that. We have to have a meeting with [15:29] Susan Deane: the audience committee, yes, in the council, okay. [15:34] Carollynn Lear: Before the next council meeting, before the next council meeting, there would be a special [15:40] Susan Hawes: special, okay, a special meeting. Will we get that scheduled? Yeah. Is there some reason why we would need to do it that quickly, be a special meeting, if she's starting her right now? Department heads are just putting together their personnel costs based on current staffing, so we won't start talking about changes to current budget probably for several weeks, so I think there's certainly adequate time to have that discussion during a normal meeting as long as it doesn't deter that. It won't, it won't put you behind the eight ball at all by waiting to a normal meeting. [16:23] Susan Deane: Is everyone in agreement to wait until corporate meeting? I don't know. Anyone have any questions for Stephanie with that? We are adjourned. It is 5 31. Who can