Local News
UPDATE: Career Center bids are lower than expected
MERCER COUNTY — Bids for renovation of the Mercer County Career Center came in 22 percent lower than estimated.
“You guys got great results,” architect Greer Hayden of HHSDR, Sharon, told members of the center’s joint operating committee at a work session Tuesday night to review the bids.
The projected total cost for the work at the center is $14.2 million. That’s about $3.25 million less than expected, Hayden said.
Hayden said officials worked hard to pare down the costs and had the benefit of a great market.
There were 39 total bids submitted for a different facets of the project, which right now includes costs of about $11.1 million for construction, $767,000 for design and engineering, $600,000 for contingency and a $1 million equipment allowance.
Low bids on the architects’ recommended alternate options are:
ä General construction — $4,744,100, Hudson Construction, Hermitage.
ä Heating, ventilation and air conditioning — $3,093,020, Scobell Co., Erie.
ä Plumbing — $709,228, Guys Mechanical Systems Inc., Rochester, Pa.
ä Electric — $1,972,877, R.E. Yates Electric, New Castle.
ä Food service equipment — $305,759, Commercial Appliance Contracts Inc., Grove City.
ä Tele/Data cabling — $259,000, MEI Systems Inc., Somerset, Pa.
ä Asbestos removal — $34,820, Medico Systems, Jefferson, Ohio.
There were seven bids for general construction, six for heating and air conditioning, five for plumbing, four for electric, five for food service equipment, eight for cabling and seven for asbestos removal (though two were received after the announced bid closing time and disqualified).
The total of the high bids is $13.9 million, about $275,000 above the low total.
The bids are good for 60 days, but Hayden said that if the committee waits that long it will push back the construction past when they would like to start.
The joint operating committee did not act on the bids at Tuesday’s meeting and may do so at their regular meeting later in the month, which is what Hayden suggested to keep the timeline as planned.
Committee President David DeForest, Sharpsville, said that the committee is the only board that has to take action to accept the bids.
Each district had to approve their share of the financial commitment, which is divided by the percentage of total market value held within each district’s borders.
Right now, it’s unclear if the project will proceed because Reynolds school directors have voted against financially supporting it.
When it was projected to cost $19 million, Reynolds school board members said it was too expensive.
They meet next week and could reconsider now that bids are in. Several members of the board were at Tuesday’s meeting.
West Middlesex school board President and committee member Tom Hubert said the committee could consider removing from construction a couple items, particularly ones Reynolds is concerned with that do not affect the education students will receive at the center.
Cutting the new entrance canopy and the lobby skylights out of the plan would bring the total down $132,000.
Hubert said he hopes that if Reynolds’ concerns, which he said are legitimate, are addressed that they’ll reconsider.
“The career center is consolidation of technical education,” Hubert said, adding that it serves as a model for future efforts at a time when such cooperation is called for by the taxpayers.
“If we can’t get this through, then what?” Hubert asked.
“Our job is to educate kids,” said Hubert, noting that the project has been in the works for seven years. “If you look around the building, it needs done … I would hate to have to start all over again. If we let this slip through our fingers now it’ll cost the taxpayers more down the road.”
- Local News
-
-
Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
State Superior Court has denied a local judge’s request to issue a precedential opinion in a rape case.
Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Reed had ruled that Chad S. Thompson, 24, formerly of Stoneboro, is a sexually violent predator, but Superior Court said in a 2-1 decision July 8 that an expert’s testimony was insufficient to back that declaration.
-
Stacey wants to continue fight over razed home
Raymond Stacey has requests pending in three courts as he presses his long-running attempt to prosecute the city of Hermitage and those he believes are responsible for illegally demolishing his parents’ house.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, on April 29 quashed an appeal because Stacey did not file his argument brief and appendix of supporting documents.
-
Burglars strike while residents sleep
Several Shenango Valley residents’ homes were broken into overnight Tuesday and Wednesday while they slept.
Two burglaries in Sharon involved people entering open windows.
-
Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
-
Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
-
City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
-
Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
-
Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
-
City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
