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New Waterford opens water upgrade bids

NEW WATERFORD — Bids for two Phase I projects, part of the village’s $8 million water distribution upgrade, were opened at noon Tuesday in the community building.

Four bids were received for plant upgrades while six were received for the much larger water line replacement portion of the Phase I work which could begin as early as November on the water plant, water tank and water tower.

One bid came in six minutes after Kent D. Baker, a principal with Engineering Associates, Inc. of Wooster, the project engineer company, began opening the bids.

The person was advised it was too late, turned around and left.

Ten guests attended the meeting and Baker said the bids would be read by name and the total amount of the bids and started with the “A” contract bids, known as the water treatment plant upgrade.

The engineer’s estimate was placed at $545,000 for that project and all the bids came in under that amount.

All the bids were submitted with a bid guarantee contract bond, that Baker mentioned when each bid was read.

The low “A” contract bid was submitted by Tri-Area Electric of Youngstown at $39,800, but that was the electrical work, a small portion of the project.

The next lowest bid, and lowest for the entire project, came from Workman Industrial Services of Kent for $476,118.

The third lowest bid was from Marucci and Gaffney Excavating Company of Youngstown for $499,500 while A.P. O’Horo Company General Contractors, also from Youngstown, had the highest bid at $526,000.

The difference between the lowest and highest bids for the entire project was $49,882.

The engineer’s estimate for the “B” contract, or the water line replacement portion, was placed at $1,640,000 and three of the six bids came in under that amount for the project.

The low bid was submitted by Marucci and Gaffney Excavating Company of Youngstown at $1,474,129. The second low bid was submitted by J.S. Bova Excavating LLC of Struthers for $1,574,899.

The third lowest bid by Utility Contracting Inc. of Youngstown was for $1,589,693 and the fourth lowest bid submitted by Rudzik Excavating of Struthers was for $1,671,855.

The fifth lowest bid was submitted by Xpress Underground of Petersburg, Ohio, for $1,748,167 and the sixth lowest bid was submitted by Mike Pusateri Excavating of East Liverpool for $1,878,847.

The difference between the lowest and highest “B” contract bid was $404,718.

Mayor Shane Patrone said the village is looking for one contractor to do the whole phase, both contract “A” and “B.”

“There’s a lot to consider,” Patrone said, explaining the village has had a lot of experience with Engineering Associates Inc.

“We’ve had good experience with them … we rely on the engineers for the actual referral to see what they see out of the bids.”

He added, “We’re pretty excited for the village of New Waterford. These are big projects and we’re going to do two of them.”

Fifteen companies requested pre-bid packets for information regarding the waterline replacement, while nine companies requested bid packets for information on the water plant upgrade.

All the bids were for Phase I work and the design work for Phase II, replacement of all the water lines throughout the village, is currently in progress.

Baker said, “We’re going to evaluate the bids in a couple of days and send them to the EPA (Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, where it could take them up to 60 days to study the bid package along with our recommendation.”

Patrone scheduled a special council meeting for 5 p.m. Aug. 29.

“Hopefully to pass a resolution based on the engineer’s recommendation to accept a bid,” he said.

lshields@salemnews.net

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