Present were Chairman Jeff Cole and Directors Frank Watson, David Zimmer, John Mosser and Brian Landon, Manager Les Hilfiger, Solicotr David Brann and Dennis Ligenfelter from Uni-Tec Consulting Engineers.
Earlier in the day the Authority had a conference call with Uni-Tec and PennVest, which confirmed that the Authority received an additional supplemental loan of $3,555,000 to be used to finance the upgrades at the wastewater treatment plant. This will be rolled into one closing with the first loan.
The awarding of the contracts was discussed in the conference call. No issues have been found with the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise review. It has not yet been determined what wage rate the DEP will use for the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provision of the bid.
The contract will be awarded contingent upon DBE approval and the final wage rates.
It is expected that the closing date for the PennVest agreement will be October 27.
The Authority Board voted to accept the additional Penn-Vest loan and enter into a contract with PennVest for a total of $12,886,670.
The board approved a notice to award the electrical contract to G R Noto for $923,000 and the general contract to Lobar for $9,352,600.
The meeting was adjourned.
Canton Borough and Canton Township had earlier voted to be the official guarantors of the borrowing. This is required under law, although the Authority rate base will cover the costs. Because of the supplemental funding, additional approval is needed from the municipalities. Canton Borough Council and the Canton Township Supervisors were invited to tonight's meeting in order to explain the need for their approval. Present were Canton Borough Administrator Amy Seeley and Councilor Chris Thoren, and Canton township Secretary Elnor Blaney and Supervisors Gary Ferguson and Jasper Smith.
Mr. Hilfiger used a drawing of the plant upgrade to explain what would be accomplished by the project. He said that the plant will be converted from an RBC plant to a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) plant. This type of plant will remove nitrogen and phosphorus, enabling the Authority to remain within projected standards to be set by the Chesapeake Bay commission.
If everything goes as anticipated, work on the upgrade should begin on August 10. The contractors probably will work to get the new buildings under roof so interior work could be done over the winter.
Mr. Lingenfelter and Mr. Brann explained provisions of the financing.
The Borough and Township will advertise ordinances to approve the additional borrowing under the Unit Debt Act.
It is expected that the township and borough will approve the relevant resolutions at their August meetings.