The Schuylkill County Municipal Authority awarded a bid Tuesday for the rehabilitation and repair of the three water tanks it is seeking to improve.
A $1,887,223 bid was awarded to WorldWide Industries Corp., Florida, contingent on bonds and insurance for the work on the three tanks, Park Basin, Mount Laurel No. 1 and Sharp Mountain No. 2. The company was one of seven that bid on the project. WorldWide Industries was the lowest bidder and was thus awarded the project, Patrick Caulfield, executive director of the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority, said. The highest bid was $3,573,400. Caulfield said that the lowest bid is lower than the more than $2 million cost the engineers estimated.
Construction could start later this year. The tank project is a two-year effort, with Mount Laurel No. 1 and Sharp Mountain No. 2 being addressed first and Park Basin in 2017. The authority received a loan of $6.4 million in January from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority for the tank upgrade project and the replacement of 11,000 residential water meters in 22 municipalities.
In related news, the bids for the meter installation project will be opened online at 3 p.m. March 23. Awarding of the bid will occur at a later date.
Caulfield said there are a lot of projects that are moving forward.
Bids for the Orwigsburg Bulk Water Project, which involves the meter pit and a meter connection for proposed development in the area on the site of the old Deer Lake Drive-In, will be opened at 1 p.m. April 4 at Orwigsburg borough hall. The bids will be awarded at a later date. In all, 220 apartments are possible by Forino Co. LP, Sinking Spring. International Custom Build Homes Inc., Allentown, is also seeking to build on 80 acres along Brick Hill Road and Route 61. Homes and commercial businesses are possible.
“The issue is supplying the water. We will be billed as a bulk customer from Orwigsburg and we will in turn bill the individual customers of West Brunswick Township via residential and commercial,” Caulfield said previously.
Bids were advertised Monday for the Reilly Township Waterline Project, which involves a new waterline to the village of Newtown and other amenities. They will be received via the PennBid Program, an online resource for bidding for public agencies, private firms and others, until April 7. Bids will be announced April 19 at the regularly scheduled 10 a.m. authority meeting, according to a legal ad published in The Republican-Herald. Caulfield said they could be awarded at the April meeting.
Caulfield said the authority has received the draft sewer rate study. The board approved the proposal by Gannett Fleming Valuation and Rate Consultants LLC in October with a corporate headquarters in Camp Hill to conduct a water and wastewater rate study. Caulfield said the study is to see if rates are in line. The last rate increase was in 2011, The Republican-Herald archives show, which amounted to $50.20 more per year for a typical family using an average of 170 gallons a day. Those using the permitted minimum of 6,700 gallons per quarter noticed a $2.40-a-year increase.
Caulfield said the bids for the third floor renovations could be advertised in April. Last year, they approved a $29,000 proposal from Levkulic Associates, Pottsville, for the design, contract administration and construction administration for renovations to the third floor of the authority building. He said previously the authority would like to convert the area into “a comprehensive planning and training room facility on the third floor,” which would be mostly for use by the authority.