Quincy awards city hall, fire station contracts

QUINCY — The Quincy City Council on Tuesday awarded a pair of construction contracts worth a total of $7.3 million to finish the work on the civic center complex and build a new fire station.

The council unanimously approved a $3.4 million bid from Richland-based DGR*Grant Construction to rebuild the city hall and library, which was halted in late 2016 when contractor Wellens Farwell failed to complete the new police station on time.

The city also awarded a $4 million contract for the new fire station to DGR*Grant Construction.

“That’s significantly higher than project estimate, and it includes paying higher labor costs,” Belino said.

Belino said that work on both projects should begin the second week of April, and hopefully will be done by the end of the year.

“We can’t wait, it’s been long overdue,” Belino said.

“This is a big undertaking, and we want to make sure we have a lot of eyes on it,” said council member Tom Harris.

The council also voted to waive the city’s nepotism policy and allow Jody Siebert — police clerk and wife of the current police chief — to keep her job for another three months while the city continues its search to replace her.

Siebert, who has been working for the Quincy Police for more than two years, resigned in November when her husband Kieth was hired as the new police chief.

“This is not about the Sieberts,” said City Attorney Alan Galbraith. “It’s not appropriate to have spouses and parents bossing each other.”

However, one member of the city council questioned the need to have Jody Siebert resign.

“Since we as a council decided to hire Kieth, it almost seems like a punishment because of who we picked,” said Council member David Durfee.

Galbraith responded by saying that while it looks like the city is punishing Jody Siebert, her resignation removes any appearance of conflict of interest and allows Chief Siebert to succeed on his own terms.

“This was a decision made by the Sieberts,” Galbraith said. “It’s a tough thing, but we have to follow the policy enacted a few years ago.”

Chief Siebert said he currently has “20-plus” applications for the position of police clerk.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.