Ford City Sewer Separation Project on Hold Again
FCBMSDA President Tom Shaffer said the sewage separation project will be delayed by six weeks due to a mistake made by the authority engineer.
by David Croyle
The Kittanning Paper has learned that a mistake made during the bidding process will require the Ford City Borough Sewage Separation Project to be re-bid.
At a special meeting scheduled for this Friday afternoon, members of the Ford City Borough Municipal Sewage Disposal Authority (FCBMSDA) will have to formally reject the bid of S&E Utility Contracting and approve re-bidding the project under the specifications required by the Pennsylvania
Under the Governor’s mandate, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania requires agencies requesting bids for any contract over $750,000 to include solicitation from an entire list of state minority contractors that specialize in that field.
Bids were originally scheduled to be opened earlier this spring; however, changes to the authority board delayed the bidding process. When the project was finally bid, there were no bidders at a June 10 meeting. The project was re-bid and on August 12, 2010, FCBMSDA Engineer David Nichols issued a recommendation to award the contract. However, Nichols failed to properly follow required procedure during the bidding process.
Calls to the Ford City Borough Municipal Sewage Disposal Authority Engineer David Nichols’ office in Pittsburgh requesting comment were not returned.
“We failed to solicit the minority bidders correctly,” FCBMSDA President Tom Shaffer said. ”Mr. Nichols was the administrator and he failed to do that. We are going to have to reject the bid and rebid it. That is why I called a special meeting on Friday. We have been in contact with the Department of Environmental Protection lady that is administering the Pennvest loan. She will work with us now to deal with all of the red tape.”
Shaffer said he will recommend Nichols teaming up with FCBMSDA Solicitor Frank Wolfe to make sure the re-bid adheres to the state specifications.
“I talked to Mr. Nichols. He will be working closely with Mr. Wolfe to do this right and exactly the way the DEP wants it, and miss no steps at all. Mr. Wolfe will verify that things are going correctly and this will be done properly. There is no more excuses.”
The re-bid process stalls the project for approximately six weeks.
“If we advertise it on Monday, it will be thirty days to the opening of the bid. We are going to be working with Pennvest and the DEP hand-in-hand so once we turn this around, the DEP is going to know through emails every single step of everyone we’ve notified so we make sure we are in compliance. It is going to happen. We should within another two weeks [after award of the bid] have approval of the project and start. With the time frame we have and in place, none of the funding is in jeopardy at all. This project is moving forward. Mistakes do happen. But now we are going to make sure it is correct and it is not going to happen again.”
Shaffer had hoped to hold a public meeting this month, but says that meeting will also be postponed.
“I can’t have a public meeting until I have all the facts in place, until I know exactly our costs and know Pennvest and the H2O is approved, and the contractors are approved; then we can move forward. I can’t do anything until everything is approved.”
Shaffer said Ford City Council is enabling the authority to post updates on the Ford City Borough website (www.fordcityborough.com). He also said he intends to communicate with the Kittanning Paper on a bi-weekly basis to give updates so those without Internet access can still receive information.
“Mistakes happen. We are sorry they happened. We are moving forward. Nothing is going to stop this project. It wasn’t done correctly, and now it will be done correctly,” he said.
Another bid by Midwest Trenchless Technologies of $69,000 to perform testing services will not be affected by this decision.
“That bid still stands and we are going to use that bid,” Shaffer said. “It tells us who is in compliance after we finish separating the project. If we have any houses in the Ford City area that need done, we will know that and target it for Phase Two of the project.”
Plant Supervisor James Smerick was on vacation this week and not available for comment.
The meeting of the Authority is scheduled for 4PM tomorrow at the Ford City Municipal Building.
Ford City Borough | David Croyle September 2, 2010
By mutchka, September 2, 2010 @ 11:34 AM
The gang that cant shoot straight strikes again my 10 year old grandson knows you have to include minorities in the bidding process and these people are calling this a mistake. Remember the council appointed them so odds are they dont know what they are doing either.