Township receives grant from OPWC to repair culvert

One company criticized the way the contract was awarded.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW SPRINGFIELD -- Springfield Township has been awarded $48,000 from the Ohio Public Works Commission for emergency repairs of a culvert on Felger Road.
The grant, announced at the township trustees' meeting Wednesday, was requested after a storm earlier this summer caused a 6-foot hole under the road. The road is closed and repairs will begin once the box culvert is delivered. Repairs are expected to be completed by Oct. 15, Trustee Shirley Heck said.
The work is being done by Bruce Sikora Excavating, which submitted a cost estimate of $47,810.
This is the second time this summer OPWC has given emergency funds to the township. In June, OPWC gave the township $23,805 to repair three small culverts washed out in a storm May 21. Those included two on Beard Road and one on Harmon Road.
Because of the emergency nature of the Felger Road project, trustees did not have to follow the formal bidding process. Instead, they informally asked several local contractors to bid for the job.
Contract bids
Don Wharry, representing L & amp;S Excavating and Trucking Inc., criticized the way the contract was awarded. Of the five bids received Aug. 20, L & amp;S had submitted the low bid of $42,032. Sikora was the next lowest bidder at $58,653.
Trustees said, however, that the three lowest bidders did not include bid bonds with their estimates. In the regular bidding process, bid bonds, which protect the township in case the job is not completed, always have to be submitted with a bid.
Trustees, who were unsure of whether a bid bond was required for an emergency project, then checked with the Mahoning County prosecutor's office and were told to seek new estimates for the project and require that bid bonds be included.
They called all five bidders and asked the bids be resubmitted with bid bonds. Only two bids were resubmitted for a second opening Aug. 25 -- Sikora, which bid $47,800, and Jet Excavating, which bid $64,620.
Wharry said he was out of town and did not have time to obtain a bid bond. He pointed out that no bid bond had been obtained for the emergency projects done earlier in the summer.
Heck and Trustee Reed Metzka agreed they erred in not obtaining a bid bond in the earlier project, but Heck pointed out that OPWC had not said anything about a bid bond and they didn't know it was required on an emergency project.
Other issues
Trustees also handled these matters:
USet a special meeting for 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at the township building for first and second captains of all three fire stations and the emergency medical services.
UAppointed Tom Mason interim second captain of the EMS to replace Ted Mason, who is resigning to attend graduate school.
UPaid $2,600 to Lake Business Products, Austintown, for a copying system for the police department.
UHeard complaints from several residents of Rapp Road about potholes and flooding there. Trustees told them the portion of the road in question belongs to the county, not the township. The residents would like the township to adopt the road, but Metzka said the township would then incur costs to maintain it.