The Bristol Arts and Innovation Magnet School construction project has become the subject of a federal grand jury subpoena as part of an investigation into Konstantinos “Kosta” Diamantis’ pressuring schools to take specific build contracts. A letter obtained by the CT Mirror indicated that Diamantis had put forward a “directive” in April 2020 telling the city to disregard a winning bid for the Memorial Boulevard School’s abatement and demolition. The school is now called Bristol Arts and Innovation Magnet School. The low bidder of the project at $4.73 million was Select Demo Services. Project leaders were told to not take the bid though and hire Bestech, a firm which came in second with a cost of nearly $200,000 more than the bid winner. The city, nor its construction manager-at-risk D’Amato + Downtes, a Joint Venture, moved to arrange any kind of work with Bestech. The city’s then corporation counsel said that the OSCG&R moved to coordinate a meeting and communications to attempt to get Bestech to work on the site “as soon as possible.” On May 12, 2020, OSCG&R told D’Amato + Downtes, a Joint Venture, to award the project to the low bidder.
http://www.bristolpress.com/BP-Bristol+News/403322/bristol-arts-and-innovation-magnet-school-construction-project-has-become-subject-of-federal-grand-jury-subpoena