The Romeo Observer - Romeo, Michigan: Northern Macomb County's weekly newspaper since 1866

Breaking News

CURTIS OSTRANDER	DUAINE HARDING
ELEANOR TODD	ELMER "BUD" HAHN
GERVASE KILEY	MARIAN SUTTON
ORLO KIRKUM	SLAVA KOKOTOVICH
Browse Full Text...

» Inside

Public Notices
Links
About Us
News Stands
Subscriptions
Editorial Forms
Archives

» Deadlines

Friday, 2 pm
Inserts

Friday, 5 pm
Retail Display
Editorial

Monday, Noon
Classified Display
Service Directory Display

Monday, 2 pm
Service Directory Liners

Monday, 3 pm
Classified Liners

All Holiday Deadlines are One Full Workday Earlier

Bruce Twp. back on track to expand WWTP

by JENNIFER PRESTON
Observer Staff Writer

      The Bruce Township board of trustees voted unanimously to rescind its decision to opt out of the Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion with the village of Romeo at a special meeting Monday morning. It now hopes to meet with the village to work on getting costs of the plant upgrade and expansion down.
       The board had voted last month to opt out of its agreement to expand the plant with the village after bids came in almost $2 million more than original estimates from village engineer Hubbell, Roth & Clark (HRC). The township still agreed to stay with its plans to upgrade the plant.
       The rescinding of this motion made last month Was recommended by township attorney Robert Seibert, after the village of Romeo sent a letter to Bruce Township from village attorney Mark Clark stating the agreement between the two municipalities does not contain any provision that would permit Bruce Township to unilaterally elect not to participate in the expansion of the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
       "The action taken by the Bruce Township Board of Trustees constitutes a material and substantial breach of the agreement between the township and the village of Romeo," the letter reads. It says if Bruce Township would not rescind its "breach of the agreement," the village would "take such lawful actions as are necessary to protect its interest in this regard."
       Seibert, who was on the committee that drew up the original contract, said he didn't see an out for the township.
       "I reviewed the agreement, and I don't believe there's a defense you'd end up prevailing on," he told township trustees. "If I had a choice, this would not be a fight I would pick."
       The township trustees grudgingly agreed to rescind the motion, saying that the village council members couldn't be too thrilled with such high bids either, and should also be looking to get out of the agreement.
       "With the bids coming in so much higher ... they're unhappy, too," said Township Supervisor Gary Schocke of the village council. "If you're unhappy with your own engineers, you should be thinking about trying to pull out of this, too."
       Officials in Romeo have said Bruce Township engineers had a say in the project as it has gone along. Bruce officials tell a different story, however.
       "The whole problem is HRC designed this," said Township Clerk Karol Regius. "How do we even know what they've been doing? They claimed our engineers knew what they were doing all along, but we didn't have any part in the design."
       Bruce and Romeo first sealed the deal for the predicted $7.1 million (including contingency costs) repair and expansion of the Romeo Wastewater Treatment Plant to increase its capacity by 500,000 gallons a day, from 1.6 million gallons to 2.1 million gallons per day, in 2002. Back then, Bruce Township's share of the cost was estimated at $2.5 million. The contract was signed March 5, 2003.
       Eleven contractors submitted bids for the Wastewater Treatment Plant improvement project. Of these bids which came in on June 3, 2004, the lowest bid was $7,540,000 (for construction only) from Sorensen Gross, which was 21 percent more than HRC's original estimate of $5,980,000 (for construction only). The village's share of the cost is now $5,960,000 and the township share is $3,445,000, bringing the total to $9,405,000 including contingency costs.
       At a special meeting held by the village council last Monday night, representatives from HRC presented research done on the current bidding climate that representatives hoped would explain why bids came in so high.
       According to a July 6 letter sent to the village by Keith McCormack, vice president of HRC, the contractor's breakdown indicated because of the "tight" site at the Romeo WWTP site, there is almost no available room for storage of new plant material equipment and material, locating construction trailers, moving construction equipment or even parking for employees, which has driven costs up.
       The letter also stated that the demand for raw materials such as lumber, concrete and steel has dramatically increased because of the burgeoning economies of China and India. Also, there has been a 5.5 percent increase in construction bids in the eight months since the project was last estimated.
       The engineer also found two projects that were similar to the Romeo WWTP bid during the same time, which experienced similar difficulties with bids over the engineer's' respective estimates. In Frenchtown Township the lowest bid for a major wastewater treatment plant expansion project which had been estimated at $5.9 million came in at $7.947 million.
       The HRC representatives recommended to the village that it go forward with the project as planned.
       "We recommend that the village accept the bids and proceed with the construction project as planned," stated McCormack in his letter. "Although it is unfortunate that the project costs are more than expected, the options are somewhat limited and could be more costly in the short and long run."
       The village will next discuss the issue with its engineers at a special meeting Monday, July 26. Bruce Township officials and engineers are also being invited.