Haverhill officials are delaying the release of names of bidders seeking the work of demolishing the what’s left of the Stevens Street mill.
In an emergency session Friday, the City Council voted to allow Haverhill Mayor Melinda E. Barrett to spend up to $5 million to take down the building due to safety concerns. Barrett said she asked the state for financial assistance. If help is not forthcoming, the city will borrow the money, she said.
City Council President Timothy J. Jordan told WHAV he also has not seen the bids and he doesn’t believe other councilors have either. He said he also has questions of the mayor about the bids. As to the cost range of bids, he said, “From what the mayor said Friday, it sounds like $5 million was the highest bid.”
If the demolition were to exceed $5 million, Barrett would be required to come back for approval, she acknowledged at Friday’s meeting.
City Solicitor Lisa L. Mead, told the Council at Friday’s meeting multiple bids came in that morning but she was not prepared to release them because they had to be reviewed. She said the demolition will be complicated because of asbestos and other hazardous materials on the site.
“Because we did it so fast, we have to make sure all the updates and addendums that were done are complied with before we evaluate the bids,” Mead explained.
Neither the mayor nor Purchasing Director Steven S. Bucuzzo would immediately say how many bids were received or what the range of costs submitted. After WHAV asked Bucuzzo for copies of the bids, he replied in an email, “I will respond to your public records request within the required time frame provided for by the Massachusetts Public Records law.” Generally, under state law, the maximum length of time to respond to such requests is 10 days.
The city moved in to take down the building after the trust that owns the building notified the city it does not have “the capacity” to pay for the demolition.
Firefighters were called to the mill just outside Lafayette Square in the early hours of April 28. They discovered fire spread throughout the complex which is the size of two football fields. Temperatures were estimated to have reached 1,200 to 1,800 degrees, enough to destabilize the building’s major structural steel girders and walls.
Three teens were charged with starting the early morning fire in the complex which sits along Little River in Haverhill’s downtown. Firefighters and a police watch remained on the scene due to hot spots and the danger of collapse.
Haverhill has a complicated history with the vacant property, running the gamut from despair over fires and related costs to possibly welcoming about 700 apartments and a restaurant. The mill was a site of another set fire in September 2015.