Boardman engineering firm sues Trumbull commissioners over contract

Staff report

WARREN

Sat Adlaka and his ES&C International engineering firm of Boardman name the Trumbull County commissioners in a lawsuit over termination of a 2006 contract for designing the second phase of a Newton Township sewer project.

The lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court says the commissioners breached their contract with ES&C by terminating it and now owe ES&C $296,000.

Trumbull County Commissioner Paul Heltzel said the commissioners have no comment on the suit.

The commissioners approved a contract with ES&C on Oct. 4, 2006, that would have paid the company $1.2 million for engineering services for the first and second phases of the Scott Street project, according to the lawsuit and Vindicator files.

Later, county officials became aware that the contract award had been in error in that it overpaid ES&C $548,000, a mistake Gary Newbrough, then the county’s sanitary engineer, said he had made because of a misinterpretation of an engineering report.

The contract was revised, awarding ES&C only the design contract for the first phase.

The second phase was never awarded to another company because the sanitary engineer’s office decided to handle the engineering in-house, Newbrough said.