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MVSD seeks OK to forgo notification law to hire MS for study
YOUNGSTOWN
MS Consultants Motion
Document
Case No. 00CV87925 - Motion for order to contract for value engineering services between MS Consultants and the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.
The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District is asking two judges to let the district hire MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown to conduct “a value engineering study” of the district’s Meander Reservoir dam and spillway improvement project without having to advertise for the study.
That contract with MS, not to exceed $152,000, would be in addition to the company’s $7,200-a-week contract to serve as the district’s operator of record and chief engineer from Feb. 23 to June 30.
MS has proposed to conduct the study on the Mineral Ridge dam improvement during this period, an MVSD court document filing said.
Because the dam-study contract cost likely would exceed $50,000, state law ordinarily would require the district to advertise for a firm to conduct the study in a general circulation newspaper weekly for five consecutive weeks, explained MVSD’s court motion to bypass this requirement.
MVSD’s lawyer, Thomas J. Wilson of Youngstown, filed the motion Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of that court and his Trumbull County colleague, Judge Ronald Rice, seeking a court order waiving the advertising requirement.
Although Wilson’s motion refers in writing to a “bidding requirement,” Atty. Matthew Blair, MVSD board president, said any advertising for professional services for this purpose actually would not be for bids, but rather, it would request that interested firms submit their professional qualifications to perform the study.
Under the proposed “value engineering study,” MS would evaluate the preliminary design of the dam and spillway improvement project produced by the engineering firm of Gannett-Fleming Inc. of Camp Hill, Pa.
The MS study would provide “additional professional insight as to what is required and not required” for the project, with the goal of reducing its cost below the estimated $28 million for the benefit of the district’s member communities and rate-paying customers, the motion said.
“When you do value engineering, you’re looking to save money,” Blair said, adding that it’s a common practice on projects of the size of this dam improvement to have a second engineering firm evaluate the first firm’s report.
Blair said the MVSD board has not voted to hire MS to perform the proposed study.
He said MS Consultants, however, would be a logical choice to perform the study because of its “long history” of professional work on the MVSD dam, including its work in 1995 on the spillway and on the installation of an inflatable rubber bladder atop that spillway to increase reservoir capacity.
The court motion was not filed for the purpose of avoiding the wait for five weeks of advertising to occur, Blair said.
In addition to its performance of this study, MS “will be available for further review or enhancement of the design of the dam and spillway improvement project,” Wilson’s motion said.
Attached to the motion was a list of MS Consultants’ hourly fees for the services of various personnel, ranging from $68 for a clerical worker to $235 for the principal engineer.