Authority project on hold
JEFFERSON – Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority has gone back and forth regarding whether to construct a new administrative office building.
In November, after discussing the project a number of months, the board decided to move ahead with a plan to build a 9,900-square-foot building on property on Route 88 near Dry Tavern donated to the authority by Consol Energy.
Hayes Design Group earlier had been hired to develop a plan for the building, which is estimated to cost $3 million. On Thursday, board approval was sought to hire a geo-technical engineer to conduct core drilling beneath the property to begin designing the building’s foundation.
A motion to hire a geo-technical engineer, however, failed in a 4 to 3 vote.
Board member Bruce Howard, who reiterated the argument of those who have opposed the project in the past, said he couldn’t see the authority spending money for a new building until it determines where it stands financially with its plant expansion project.
Howard, Mickey Dikun, Pat Knight and Tim Faddis voted against the motion. Voting for it were Alan Jenkins, Tim Phillips and Bob Dugan.
Jenkins argued the authority is growing and it needs more office space. He pointing to boxes of supplies stacked in the board meeting room apparently because of a lack of space in the building. Dugan also said the longer the authority waits the more the project is going to cost.
The board then discussed plans to renovate and place an addition on the existing administrative office building, which had been developed but then also dropped in the past.
It voted to ask the architect prepare a cost comparison between building a new building and renovating and expanding the existing building.
In other business, authority engineer Randy Krause reported bids will be opened for the first phase of the plant expansion project March 8. The authority could then award contracts for the project at its March 14 meeting.
The first phase, estimated to cost $17 million, will increase the capacity of the authority’s plant from 7 million to 9.2 million gallons a day.
Bids also must be reviewed by the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority, which is providing the authority with an $8.6 million loan for the project. Contractors could begin work after the bids are reviewed by the state and the authority closes on the PENNVEST loan May 21, Krause said.
Authority solicitor David Pollock distributed a draft of incorporation papers for a new authority Southwestern is creating to operate a park at the authority’s Wisecarver Reservoir property.
The park authority will be formed by the authority, Greene County and Franklin Township to manage the park and raise money for the park’s development. The park authority will be separate from the water authority and will not be funded by the authority’s ratepayers or the county’s and township’s taxpayers.
Pollock said he would like meet with county and township officials once more to ensure their participation before the incorporation papers are approved.
He was given approval to share the documents with Greene County Memorial Hospital Foundation and Waynesburg University, which also have expressed interested in participating in the park’s development.