Authority awards sidewalk contract
?The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday awarded a contract for a new sidewalk construction project to the second lowest bidder after problems were found in the low bid.
The authority board of directors awarded a $39,950 contract to construct 1,000 feet of sidewalks on Maple Street to Ellkay Inc. of Uniontown after executive director Mark Yauger said the lowest bid did not include prevailing wages for workers.
Parkside Contracting of South Park bid $30,380, but the company’s bid documents did not include prevailing wages, Yauger said, adding that the company withdrew its bid.
The authority received and opened eight bids for the project in June.
The new 6-foot-wide sidewalks will be constructed in front of the new single-family houses being built on Maple Street. Yauger said work would start in a couple weeks.
In unrelated business, DeLinda Young of Uniontown asked the board if the results of a study into the administrative costs of the school districts in Fayette County would be released to the public. She made a similar inquiry at the authority’s meeting in June.
State Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-South Union Township, obtained a grant to retain a company to perform the study. He believes the study results will support his idea to consolidate the districts’ administrations to save money.
An advisory committee working on the study asked the authority to administer the grant, advertise for bidders and award the contract. The authority retained Education Management Group of Harrisburg to conduct the study.
Young said the committee should not be the first entity to receive the study results because it is not a public agency.
Board Chairman John Oris said the authority would make the results public if it receives them. He said he didn’t know if the authority would be the first entity to receive the results.
Yauger said the contractor will have to give the authority a copy of the results in order to get paid for its work.
Solicitor Samuel Davis said the contractor would not violate its contract if it gave the results to the advisory committee before the authority.
Turning to a personnel matter, Weed and Seed coordinator Jeff McLaughlin said he had to lay off part-time assistant Rebecca Hilton.
McLaughlin said the Weed and Seed program has been eliminated from the state budget and the city’s grant from the program no longer could cover her wages.
He and other authority officials praised her efforts and credited her with spearheading the community garden project on Lincoln Street.
The authority can continue using the existing Weed and Seed grant money, but it won’t receive any more money from the program, McLaughlin said.
He said he would try to continue holding meetings in the Weed and Seed neighborhoods, which are the North Gallatin Avenue, East End and Lafayette neighborhoods.
In other business, Yauger said he met with state Department of Transportation officials on Monday and was led to believe PennDOT would issue the permit to install a storm water drainage line under Morgantown Street by the end of the week.