By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — A new fire alarm system will soon be installed in the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office building.
The Aroostook County Commissioners reviewed five bids Jan. 8 for a project to replace the fire alarm system at the administrative building in Houlton. Commissioners tabled action on the bids to allow Doug Beaulieu, county administrator, to review all of the proposals and gave Beaulieu the authority to
award the project to the lowest bidder, provided they met all the required specs for the project.
John LaJoie of County Electrical (Caribou) was the low bidder at $10,501. Other bidders were: Toby Devoe of Aroostook Electrical Services (Caribou), $14,768; Swallow’s Electric (Houlton), $16,056; Matthew Brady of Seacoast Securities (Hermon), $14,634.30; and Timothy Todd of R.L. Todd and Sons (Caribou), $16,032.
According to Bryan Jandreau, facilities manager, the fire alarm project for the Sheriff’s Office building, located on 25 School St. in Houlton includes all labor and materials to provide a fully operational building fire alarm system to improve overall safety of the facility.
“Presently the building has manual compressed air blow horns for use in the event of fire or emergency,” Jandreau said. “The system will be a microprocessor based controller that offers conventional and intelligent fire detection and has the capability to be expanded for building security systems. The system will have 198 points of contact (smoke detection devices) to monitor the building and the heating and ventilation systems. The system will have a main operation panel as well as an identification panel for the lobby. The system will also call out to an outside monitor service provider for notification of alarm.”
In other agenda items, the commissioners:
• Learned that the North Lakes Fire and Rescue department received a grant in the amount of $2,700 for firefighting equipment. The County will have to match half of the grant amount.
• Were updated on the lease negotiations with the District Court in Caribou. The county has been seeking a five-year lease agreement with the court.
• Elected Paul Adams as chairman for 2013 and Norman Fournier as the chief elected official for the Workforce Investment Act program.
• Approved a routine overload weight limit agreement with the Maine Department of Transportation for Cross Lake Township.
The next meeting of the County Commissioners is set for Wednesday, Jan. 23 at 4:30 p.m. in Fort Kent.
