Ayer Senior Center Committee Awards $512,410 Utility Contract to CHB Corporation

AYER -- February 19, 2026, Ayer's Senior Center Building Committee unanimously awarded a $512,410 utility contract and approved nearly $261,000 in vendor invoices at its February 19 meeting. The committee voted to award the water main and Comcast underground line work to CHB Corporation, the lowest of 16 bidders, with roughly $390,000 of the base bid of $426,150 tied to the senior center project and the remainder drawn from the DPW stormwater budget; an additive alternate of $122,410 covers a Comcast cable run requiring horizontal directional drilling beneath railroad tracks on the site. DPW representative Dan Vancelko, who will vet monthly pay requisitions split between the project and DPW budgets, noted the utilities line item had been budgeted at $1 million, "maybe they're two million," he recalled the prior uncertainty, making the award a tangible early savings. The $260,915.90 in approved invoices covers architecture, consulting, and a prepaid National Grid commitment needed to secure a place in the utility's construction schedule. A third-party cost estimate from estimator Pete Timothy is expected by mid-March, as committee members openly flagged that grant funding sources "are not as flush as perhaps they once were."