Charleroi water authority faces lawsuit over bill
A Mon Valley contractor is accusing the Charleroi water authority of breaching its contract with the company by failing to pay a six-figure bill for emergency road repairs it performed in July when a 16-inch water main ruptured.
Speers-based Patriot One Inc., of 35 Carson St., alleges Charleroi Borough Authority failed to uphold its side of the agreement for the contractor to perform the work by refusing to honor a $102,561 bill months after it was supposed to remit payment.
The company said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Borough of Charleroi Water Authority hired the company July 8 to repair a section of First Street in the borough damaged by a blowout in a water main six days earlier.
The work was completed July 11, according to the lawsuit.
Patriot One alleges the authority agreed to remit the payment for the work at its next board meeting, held on July 26.
Instead, the board voted against the payment.
The lawsuit doesn’t specify a reason the board allegedly made that decision.
Attorney Martell Harris, who represents the contractor, said the authority hasn’t provided his client anything in writing outlining why it allegedly hasn’t paid.
“They did indicate a reason to me that made me feel we needed to file this,” Harris said.
He declined to share that reason, but said it “didn’t make any sense.”
Authority solicitor Keith Bassi declined comment, saying the defendants haven’t been served with the lawsuit.
“I’m not at liberty to comment on a matter that I have not had the opportunity to see,” Bassi said.
Along with the authority, Harris named as defendants Charleroi Borough; authority board Chairman Walter Hopkins and members Thomas Santoro, Patrick Garman, Edward Bryner and David DiPiazza; and authority officials Edward Golanka, Charles Cardinale and Charles Stirling.
Like Bassi, borough solicitor Alan Benyak said he couldn’t comment on litigation he hadn’t seen.