Sep 25, 2002 By Joyce Koballa 2 min read

DUNBAR TWP. – The North Fayette County Municipal Authority agreed to file a lien for $171,216 against Fay-Penn Fiber Inc. in conjunction with the recent foreclosure of property in the Fayette Business Park in Georges Township. The authority took action Tuesday based on an agreement it made with Fay-Penn Fiber on Jan. 28, 1998, for the minimum purchase of three million gallons of water for May through August of this year.

“We have an obligation,” said Paul Kendi, authority secretary.

Under the agreement, the $171,000 was to be paid in full by Fay-Penn before Oct. 1 or a 10 percent penalty would be added to the invoice for every 30 days that the payment was not received.

According to the billing summary, Fay-Penn received a past due invoice for $148,156 that included $129,132 owed to the authority from March 2000 through this January, including the penalty. T

he amounts due for February through April were listed as $6,341 including the penalties.

For May through August of this year, Fay-Penn was billed $5,765 each month, which also included the penalty.

Fay-Penn Fiber is owned by Clarion Fiber Inc., of DePere, Wis., which purchased 70 acres in 1999 for $1.8 million from Fayette Industrial Fund, (FIF) the park’s owner.

However, the deal went sour when FIF held the mortgage on the property and Clarion Fiber defaulted on that agreement.

The plant would have created roughly 200 jobs in the manufacture of medium density fiberboard and related products. Area sawmills would also have benefited from the factory.

In other business, the authority awarded a $8,657.25 contract to Rygiel Excavating of Uniontown as the lowest of four bidders to install a six-inch water line extension on North Liberty Street in Perry Township.

Bob Softcheck, authority manager, said the supervisors received funding for the project last year in which part of the line was extended. Softcheck added that the supervisors obtained additional funding again this year in order for the line to be extended to the end of the street.

In a similar contract matter, the authority agreed to re-advertise for bids to replace the carbon filter at the filtration plant after the original contractor failed to meet contract obligations.