Girard officials don't want low bidder to win project

The mayor and service director question which bid is best.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- For the second time in a year, city officials don't want to deal with a contractor caught up in a Warren city demolition scandal.
Mayor James A. Melfi admits that position is churning up possible legal action against the city by the lowest bidder on a project.
The city solicited bids for a $27,000 project that would extend the sanitary sewer by about 240 feet to Heather Avenue.
Service Director Rex Funge explained that the city received two bids that are about $1,400 apart.
The lowest bid was received from James Matash, president of M & amp;M Excavating Co. of Warren. The other was from A.P. O'Horo Co. of Liberty.
Funge said that he "really wasn't happy" with previous work M & amp;M did for the city, and because Matash is a convicted felon.
Matash was sentenced to a year in prison in 2001 for unlawfully acquiring a contract to demolish the Regency Hotel on U.S. Route 422 in Warren.
What happened
He reportedly paid $5,000 to James Lapmardo, 53, a Warren building official at the time, to get the contract. Lapmardo, who left his job in 2002, is scheduled to be sentenced July 1 in federal court on a charge of racketeering.
"We want to go with O'Horo. We know they're reputable," Funge said.
The Girard Board of Control -- including the mayor, service director and auditor -- is having engineering firm Burgess & amp; Niple review the bids.
At the same time, city engineer David Hall has asked Law Director Mark Standohar for an opinion about not using M & amp;M, the lowest bidder.
Funge pointed out that the city is required to award contracts to the "lowest and best" bidder, not simply the lowest.
Letter from attorney
M & amp;M's attorney, Robert L. York of Warren, has cautioned the controlling board in a letter June 1 that he is compelled to protect his client's rights as the lowest and best bidder.
This could include, York wrote, the filing of an injunction prohibiting the controlling board from awarding the contract.
This is the second time Melfi has run up against a company caught up in the Warren scandal.
Melfi decided in May 2003 not to award a contract to DPM because its owners had paid a Warren building official $70,000 to get a demolition contract.
t that time, the board of control rejected DPM's low bid of $14,400 to move a city-owned waterline at state Routes 193 and 304 in Liberty Township.
Standohar ruled at the time that DPM's bid didn't contain a bond with its bid package as required.
Standohar also said that because DPM's owners were awaiting sentencing on criminal charges, the company's ability to complete the job was in question.
The company principals, Dante Massacci of Warren and his son, Dante Massacci Jr., were each sentenced to a year in prison.
The younger Massacci charged that when DPM's bid was rejected by Girard that he and his father were being "blackballed" by the city.
Ironically, Funge said, it was Matash who pointed out to the city that the Massaccis were awaiting sentencing -- and Matash received the contract for the waterline work.
yovich@vindy.com