Lower Frederick Township. Photo by James Short.
The project will be paid using ARPA funds, but Chair Marla Hexter pointed out the project doubled in cost.
What began as a Spring Mount Road and Main Street road base repair with a $11,000 price tag has ended up as a road repair costing almost double for Lower Frederick Township.
Nonetheless, it was approved in a 4-0 vote Tuesday night, with one supervisor recusing himself due to his company winning the bid.
“The cost to us was $11,000 under the original amount,” said supervisors Chair Marla Hexter after the vote. “So now we are about $12,000 out-of-pocket for this repair.”
Supervisor Terry Sacks recused himself from the vote due to his company, paving contractor Sacks & Sons Inc., of Zieglerville, winning the repair bid, which was $22,960.
The quote was $17,960 for the base repair work and $5,000 for asphalt.
“Because you are using an equipment bid here, ergo, we don’t have to bid out this project for labor, because the project itself is still over the telephonic bid limit for the total project,” said Solicitor Peter Nelson. “The material that the township is going to go buy, the township has to get the quotes and then purchase from the lowest quote.”
“You can still wish to move forward on the project with the caveat that the project doesn’t cost more than $23,200, then it gets put to public bid,” Nelson said.
Township Engineer Carol Schuehler said quotes would not be needed if the township is purchasing materials from a quarry and asphalt under the COSTARS program.
“We can use ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) (relief) funds for this since we’ve got a bucketful to use right now,” said township Manager Jason Wager.
