BOARDMAN Wage law increases student crew's pay

A township official says any problems have been corrected.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Township officials say all is in good order now, but procedural errors in a contract earlier this year led to an investigation by the state and resulted in additional pay for students hired to do work this summer.
An investigator with the Ohio Department of Commerce said the township had been in violation of state law in some of its procedures with hiring an asphalt company for the township's 2003 resurfacing program.
Cleveland Asphalt of Bessemer, Pa., was awarded the contract for $381,852.
A report by John Kirkland, a commerce department investigator, says a schedule of prevailing wages was not attached to the specifications and made available to bidders as required.
There also was no reference to the state's prevailing-wage requirements attached to the contract. Certified payrolls show fewer employees than actually worked on the road project, and temporary summer employees were not paid the prevailing wage rate.
Township Administrator Curt Seditz is the prevailing-wage coordinator for the resurfacing project.
Prevailing wages are pay rates determined by the state for individuals working on improvement projects paid with public funds. A prevailing-wage coordinator must be appointed for each project.
What happened
Seditz said the state's inquiry was a matter of bad timing for him. He said investigators were looking into the matter at a time when he was away from the job on a family matter.
He added that the bid procedure changes have been made and any other problems corrected.
Seditz said four township summer employees worked on the road resurfacing project at a pay rate of about $10 per hour. They should have been paid the prevailing wage, which he said is about $17 an hour.
Seditz said township officials were unaware of the requirement that summer employees also be paid the prevailing wage for work on improvement projects such as the resurfacing program. He said the township did pay the four employees the additional money, a total of $1,765.
Seditz said the township likely will not use summer employees in the 2004 resurfacing project. The summer employees are high school or college students who perform various road department tasks.
jgoodwin@vindy.com