MOUNT JEWETT — The Mount Jewett Sewer board motioned to table bid reviews for a sewer project to upgrade sections of the line Tuesday night following “unforeseen circumstances” with the bid deadline and not having a person available at the borough building to accept the bids by the 4 p.m. submission deadline.
Board chairman Mike Wennerstrom
Under the engineer’s report, engineer Curt Wallace out of Bradford raised some observations concerning an overflow section and lagoon bank that were in need of some preventative maintenance. The board discussed the recommendations with maintenance worker, John Hayduk and determined the need to observe the issues first hand on Wednesday morning. Additionally, Wallace recommended consideration of flow monitoring devices to be installed on the inlet points of the ponds. The board motioned to have Hayduk seek out options and quotes on these devices for discussion at the next meeting.
The board had been slated to review bids for an upcoming system improvement project to replace old lines with new 12″ lines and eliminate several 90 degree bends where straight runs could be used. It was at this time that board member Brian Sees addressed the other board members stating, “Just so everybody knows, the bids were supposed to be here at 4 p.m. today but there was nobody here. I just happened to drive by and earlier I saw a vehicle out here so I stopped by. So, we might have missed a couple of them.”
When asked about how many bids were expected, Wallace stated, “There were, I think, nine people asked for plans. We have three responses. I know two of them for sure that were not going to submit a proposal.”
Unsure of how to proceed, the board sought advice from board Solicitor Tony Alfieri and he responded, saying, “Normally, you would have a low apparent bidder, but I wouldn’t award it tonight. I don’t see a problem with opening these at this point, but I would contact the other six just to make sure nobody was going to submit a bid. I don’t know what the answer would be if somebody were to say, ‘Hey I was here to bid’. I’m going to have to look into that to give you a recommendation off the top of my head. I don’t know what we’d have to do at that point. You may have to rebid it.”
The board debated on the next step in their decision citing concerns that if the current bids were reviewed it may negate the competitive nature of the bidding process by allowing another contractor to undercut a previously submitted bid. The board went back and forth with Alfieri and Wallace for several minutes over the establishment of a special meeting to review the bids, the regulations on notifying the public and the borough secretary’s availability before moving to make a decision.
The board agreed to table the bids for the time being.
The next regularly scheduled Mount Jewett Sewer board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. May 9.
