BY NICHOLAS BROWN

Candia officials are regrouping after bids for the town’s new recycling and transfer station came in about $800,000 higher than they’d hoped for.

Voters last year approved $1.5 million for the new transfer station, slated for a town-owned property off Deer Run Road, just off Route 27.

The station will replace the current incinerator, which is likely not to qualify for a new burning permit once more stringent emissions standards, sent down from the federal Environmental Agency, take effect in November 2008.

“That’s the deadline we really can’t miss,” said Selectman Tom Giffen.

After buying the land and some other fees, the town is down to about $1.2 million of the original $1.5 million bond, and bids for the project from multiple firms came in at about $2 million, with the lowest bid being $1.8 million.

Ledge on the Deer Run Road property is the main culprit for the high bids, which came in about a month ago, Giffen said.

“The cost estimates were off mainly for that reason,” he said.

Giffen said he and other town and transfer station officials plan to rework the plan’s general qualifications, and thereafter will seek lower bids