Commissioners to award 3 of 4 sewer contracts

It’s not known whether rebidding one contract will delay the project.

WARREN — Ground could be broken within a couple of weeks on the controversial Lakeshore sanitary sewer project on the west shore of Mosquito Lake, even though one of four contracts will have to be rebid.

Trumbull County commissioners are expected to award contracts totaling $837,531 today for the Bazetta Township project’s sewer lines, force main, pump station and electrical work.

The project has been long anticipated by Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, county health department and other officials because waste from the neighborhood’s failing septic systems flows into Mosquito Lake, the source of Warren’s public water.

Commissioners are expected to award the contracts to JCM Contracting Inc. of Columbiana ($509,398); Kirilla Contractors Inc. of Brookfield ($188,535); and B&J Electric of North Lima ($139,598).

Commissioners are also expected to reject the bids offered for the upgrade to the Sterling Drive waste treatment plant because they were more than 10 percent above the $316,035 estimate provided by Youngstown engineering company ES&C International.

The plant will treat the waste from the neighborhood, which includes 60 homes on Lakeshore and West Lake drives. The residents will pay for the sewers through assessments.

Rex Fee, executive director of the Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer’s Department, said it is difficult to tell whether the rebidding will set back the project in any way.

Problems with the bid packages provided by ES&C caused the bids to be rejected in September, and ES&C’s work was reviewed for additional errors. The Youngstown engineering company MS Consultants did find additional problems, and the project was bid again in November.

The first three phases of the project can get under way regardless of how long it takes to get the treatment plant contract awarded, Fee said. If commissioners approve the three contracts today, the only thing holding up construction will be a week or so worth of contract signing, he said.