Franklin General Authority members heard good news Tuesday when city engineer Al Wodzianski presented the panel with a project bid at a much lower price than expected.
“I initially budgeted $300,000 for this project,” Wodzianski told the panel.
The bid from Horizon Construction Group Inc. of Sandy Lake, which the authority accepted unanimously, came in at $182,600 for work that will be done to the city’s primary circular clarifier – a tank that aids in the treatment of wastewater.
Wodzianski added that members of the crew for Horizon had worked with the city previously as part of another construction firm, and he believes them to be capable of good work.
The good news continued at Tuesday’s meeting as the authority heard an update about the wastewater treatment plant’s SCADA (system control and data acquisition) system installation.
A representative for the company installing the system, MicroMod Automation, explained to the authority that a computer issue that has delayed the installation of the final computer program will be fixed within the next week.
The representative was optimistic that the biggest hurdles of the project will be finished by the middle of April.
In other business Tuesday, EADS Group engineer Kyle Fritz told council a water line replacement that would extend into Sugarcreek Borough might cost more than had originally been budgeted.
Fritz explained that Sugarcreek Borough Council is in the process of passing an ordinance requiring that any time a borough road is broken for construction, the entire width of that road must be paved over at the expense of the contractor.
Fritz said the original scope of work called for the paving of only one lane of the road.
“Maybe we’ll need to have a talk with them (Sugarcreek Borough),” Dunkle said.
