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At Tuesday’s meeting of the Norwood Town Council, the council tentatively awarded the contract for the renovation of its wastewater plant.

Haren Construction, which is also working on another project in Stanly in Oakboro, was tentatively awarded the project. The Etowah, Tenn.-based company had the low bid of $4.3 million.

Bids were reviewed by Willis Engineers of Charlotte, who determined Haren to be the lowest bid. In the resolution, the lowest bid exceeded the funds available for the project, so the award is tentative until the town and Haren can have a memorandum of negotiation bringing the price down “not to exceed $3,750,000.”

The award is also tentative per the resolution until it is approved by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality.

Councilman Robbie Cohen asked about the non-hazardous waste disposal part of the bid. Engineer Charles Willis said Haren “was not intimidated by that function…they understand what it is. There’s some old garbage they need to get out of the way.”

Willis added the company is trying to cut some things from the bid in order to get the number down to $3.75 million. One item which he said “had a pretty big price tag” was the demolition of the old clarifier. He said many towns decide to demolish old structures in order to keep costs down.

The engineer said legally the town can only negotiate with the lowest bidder about lowering the bid. He said Haren wished to pick up a second job in the county “so they can have some economy and scale on what they are doing.”

Willis said the current construction market is “wide open” and the contract has to be reviewed by the state because a state loan program is involved in it.