ALLENTOWN – The two bids Allentown officials received from companies that sought a municipal contract to refurbish the waste water treatment plant in the borough were each more than $1 million in excess of the borough engineer’s estimate for the work.
More than a dozen companies obtained a bid package for the project, but on the date the bids were due, May 22, only two bids were received, from CMS Construction Inc. and from Eastern Environmental Contractors Inc., according to a document provided by municipal officials.
During a special meeting on May 31, members of the Borough Council voted to reject both bids. According to a resolution, both bids “substantially exceed the project engineer’s cost estimate and also substantially exceed available funding.”
The project engineer’s cost estimate was $2.245 million. The bid from CMS Construction Inc. was initially $4.158 million, but was then reduced to $3.697 million due to a calculation error, and the bid from Eastern Environmental Contractors Inc. was $4.138 million.
Borough Attorney Greg Cannon said that legally, the council could not award a contract to either of the two bidders because officials had not bonded for an amount that would have covered the work.
Regarding the firms that expressed interest, but did not submit a bid, council members said a majority of those companies were too busy to take on the project, could not meet the timeline municipal officials had established, and/or could not complete the work at the price set by Allentown.
Given that outcome with regard to the bids that were received, council President Thomas Fritts said, “The governing body reviewed a series of options and chose to reject the bids and appoint Roberts Engineering to design and prepare a new bid specification on a package plant estimated at $2.7 million for construction.
“This package plant is modular in design, using one sixth of the footprint and more efficient with less electric, UV lighting that will reduce chemical costs and it is new vs. the (previous) project that was a refurbishment of the existing plant, with increased operating expenses.
“The borough paid Dewberry Engineering $240,000 for services that are now discarded. If we had gone with the proposed package plant in 2015, avoiding $154,000 in New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) fines, the plant would be up and running today rather than looking at February 2020 as a completion date.
“Although I wasn’t on council in 2015 when (previous) choices were made, I attended all meetings and couldn’t understand why the mayor and the Ad Hoc Sewer Committee members delayed the project, battled the council against the suggested Roberts Engineering project and hired a firm (Dewberry Engineering) that was eventually terminated,” Fritts said. “The amount of money wasted is disgusting.”
Speaking at the council’s June 12 meeting when the matter was discussed by the governing body and residents, Mayor Greg Westfall said, “I want the plant done as soon as possible. The plan that has been voted on is not going to get it done as soon as possible.”
In response to a question from the Examiner, Borough Engineer Carmela Roberts said a package plant “is simply a design of new treatment units that have a small footprint with high intensity treatment. They can all be placed in a small area or not, depending on the available space.
“The Allentown treatment plant has many existing treatment units and our work will include determining the best location for the new units, to take advantage of the space, to not interfere with the existing treatment, and to provide a low cost,” Roberts said.
Allentown’s waste water treatment plant is off Breza Road. Officials have said one issue to be addressed by the upgrades is a situation in which the level of ammonia is over the limit set by the DEP for discharge into Doctors Creek. Allentown has been fined more than $150,000 as a result of that violation. The improvements will bring the water being discharged from the treatment plant into compliance with DEP standards, officials have said.
“We darn well better get this done soon or we will get a lot more fines,” Councilman John A. Elder III said.
Resident Jane Westfall said she “questions whether the council has asked what experience Roberts Engineering has building a package plant.”
Fritts said sanitary engineers work for Roberts Engineering and added, “We are going with the engineer that has proven themselves on other projects in the borough.”