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Extra costs for disputed Vienna sewer project pegged at $2.2 million
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A final accounting of the extra cost to build a Vienna sewer project marred by a legal disputes was set at $2.2 million when the Trumbull County commissioners signed off on final property assessments.
The project, known as Squaw Creek Phase 4, was one of two constructed by Marucci and Gaffney of Youngstown starting in 2015 that led to litigation with the county.
The county alleged some of the construction was substandard and had to be torn out and replaced, but the litigation was resolved out of court in an undisclosed settlement.
The project runs from Squaw Creek Country Club on state Route 193 north to Warren-Sharon Road and then east to Mathews High School. Most of the properties have since tied into the sewer, said Gary Newbrough, deputy sanitary engineer.
The commissioners’ resolution Wednesday was to confirm that the 63 property owners affected by project will pay at $82.26 per front foot, the maximum amount quoted to the property owners when the project was proposed.
Newbrough said the project ran $2.2 million over the original estimates because of the extra work to fix the alleged substandard work.
The extra cost will be paid by the customers in the county’s Metropolitan Sewer District, of which the Squaw Creek Phase 4 project is a part.
The good news is the Metropolitan Sewer District is in good financial shape “and should be able to handle the extra debt with no increase in sewer rates,” Newbrough said.
The county also had a legal dispute with Marucci & Gaffney Excavating of Youngstown over another 2015 sewer project the company built in the Kinsman area.
In that dispute, a panel of arbitrators ordered the county to pay $1.2 million to Marucci & Gaffney, saying the “greater weight of evidence” showed the problems [with the sewer] were caused by poor engineering and project management, not poor construction by Marucci & Gaffney.
MS Consultants of Youngstown handled the project engineering.
The Vindicator analyzed the costs of the Kinsman project with Sanitary Engineer Randy Smith and arrived at a figure of $2.4 million as the cost the Kinsman dispute cost sewer customers.
Phase 5 of the Squaw Creek project is expected to break ground in the spring. It will continue from Warren Sharon Road north past the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.