MVSD Water board awards pact for meters

The meters measure concentration of particles in the water.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
MINERAL RIDGE -- Mahoning Valley Sanitary District directors approved a $170,967 contract to meet federal regulations effective Jan. 1.
The board awarded the contract to Pro-Tech Engineering of Akron at a meeting Thursday for installation of meters that measure the concentration of particles in the water.
Environmental Protection Agency regulations require the measurements for each filter every 15 minutes. There are 16 filters at the facility.
Bid specs: CT Consultants Inc. of Willoughby, Ohio, developed contract documents and bid specifications for the project to install the monitoring meters. The monitoring requirement is part of federal regulations that take effect Jan. 1 for all surface water facilities across the country.
The improvements are part of a capital improvement project started in the early 1990s. That project stopped after a 1997 special audit by the state auditor's office found that the board's two former directors had mismanaged the project. The audit also concluded that the Rhode Island company working on the project collected fees for work that wasn't done.
Craig Juday of CT Consultants said the work involves installation of 33 meters -- two meters for each of the plant's 16 filters and one central meter to measure filter effluent. Under the contract, the Akron company also must ensure that the meters are calibrated for one year.
The EPA requires equipment to be calibrated quarterly. After one year, the district may contract the calibration service or have district personnel do the work.
David Tabak, chief engineer, said the work is to be done by December.
Pay raise: Following an executive session of about an hour and 20 minutes, board members approved a one-year contract for Tabak with a 5 percent raise.
Tabak earned $65,882 this year and the one-year pact approved by the board in September 2000 expires at the end of this month.
The new contract increases the chief engineer's pay to about $69,176 annually. The 5 percent increase corresponds to the increase granted to union employees in their contract for this year.