[FONT=Verdana]WOONSOCKET, RI - Demolition of the FDS Industries mill, destroyed in a seven-alarm fire two weeks ago, will begin this week after city officials awarded a $105,882 contract for the work Friday.

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[FONT=Verdana]The work includes removal of asbestos from the ruins and taking down three steel bridges attached to adjacent structures.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]It is part of the former French Worsted Mill complex, an area where, in 2003, five mill buildings burned in an even more dramatic fire.

Coventry Building Wrecking Co. Inc., the second-low bidder in what became a complicated process, received the contract after the low bid had to be discarded, said Joel D. Mathews, director of planning and development.

Arson is suspected as causing the fire that demolished the
vacant, city-owned mill in a case still under investigation by the state fire marshal's office and city officials.

The city initially opened the bids on May 2, but a mix-up over whether the removal of undetermined asbestos amid the rubble was included within the specifications caused officials to throw out the bids. They sought a second round of bids the following day.

Afterwards, they awarded the low bid of $100,000 to Bilray Demolition Co. Inc. of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]Johnston[/FONT][FONT=Verdana], according to Mathews and Paulette Miller, deputy director of housing and community development, who handles many of the city's federal grants.
Bilray, Mathews said, "did not produce a satisfactory performance bond." When the deadline of Thursday at [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]9 a.m.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] to correct the bond passed, the company withdrew its bid, Mathews said.

That caused the city to make the award to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]Coventry[/FONT][FONT=Verdana], one of the state's few demolition firms located in the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]Scituate[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]village[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]Hope[/FONT][FONT=Verdana].

[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]Coventry[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]'s high-rise crane has remained at the FDS site since a day after the fire when the fire marshal's office ordered it be brought there during its investigation.

Ironically, the city saved tens of thousands of dollars from the second round of bidding, with the contracted amount less than half of what was anticipated.

"Financially we benefited from our re-bid, although that is not how we planned it," Mathews said.

Initially, the low bid that did not include all of the asbestos removal was $131,000, while a bid that did include all of the work was $187,000, according to Mathews.

"We were thinking the price would be in the $250,000 range," he said.

He said the large amount of salvage steel from a mill filling a 1