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Some clouds. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable..

Some clouds. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable.

Part of the current DuBois wastewater treatment plant is shown on Guy Avenue.

Part of the current DuBois wastewater treatment plant is shown on Guy Avenue.

DuBOIS — The DuBois City Council, at Monday’s meeting, awarded bids, totaling more than $76 million, for the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant.

Following the recommendation of city Engineer Chris Nasuti, the council awarded the following bids for the project:

Nasuti said the city was to notify the bidders of the awards Tuesday.

“We have to have all of our contracts in place and back to PennVEST by Sept. 26th, and then the closing date for the PennVEST loan will be Oct. 13,” said Nasuti. “Following Oct. 13th, we can issue the notice to proceed and the construction can begin.”

Council Member Shannon Gabriel asked if the contractors will be able to work through the winter and Nasuti said they will.

Prior to the city council meeting, the DuBois/Sandy Township Joint Board, made up of elected officials from the city council and the board of supervisors, as well as the managers from both municipalities, met and the sewage plant was discussed.

“I know Chris will allude to it ... not only is it the sewage plant, obviously it’s a lot of money, but there’s also a lot of line work in that,” said city Manager John “Herm” Suplizio.

“We’ll be redoing the lines on Coke Hill, and then the main interceptor lines leading you down to the plant along Sandy Lick Creek will be done,” said Nasuti. “The access road to the plant will be done. And then the plant itself ... currently working with PennVEST, we anticipate closing Oct. 13, and hopefully, construction will start shortly thereafter. We’re on schedule to meet DEP’s compliance schedule of November 2024 for a completion of the plant.”

Supervisor Barry Abbott asked what the anticipated cost of the sewage plant is.

“The whole job is about $90 million,” said Nasuti.

Suplizio acknowledged and expressed appreciation to Nasuti, DuBois Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Joe Mitchell and Public Works Director Scott Farrell for all of the work they have done on the project so far.

“It has been an enormous amount of work, and I say, took a burden off of all of us because they put it on their shoulders and ran with it,” said Suplizio. “But I don’t think anybody, including those on that committee, wants to spend the $90 million. It affects all of us. No one really wants to do it. It’s just that we have to do it. That’s the difference.”

“Can I kindly ask to refresh everybody? When was that plant built?” said Council Member Diane Bernardo.

Suplizio said the engineering of the plant was done in 1948, and Nasuti said it was built in the early 1960s.

“When you look at the wear and tear, even on anything nowadays, and the fact that those before us had the foresight to probably do it pennies on the dollar, but we have to do it for the new DuBois and beyond,” said Bernardo.

Bernardo also asked township Manager Shawn Arbaugh if he had any feedback because he previously mentioned he was going to look into some kind of longer term loan for the sewage treatment plant.

“I can definitely talk about that,” said Arbaugh. “I did talk to Pennsylvania DEP and asked if there was any way we could get an extension. From working at DEP for 10 years, and routinely doing work along those lines, I thought we may be able to acquire something now to get a longer extension, see if we could get better pricing or we could really reduce that overall burden from that new sewage treatment facility.

“Unfortunately, they (DEP) identified that we are on the EPA watch list and that this is a significant non-compliance, and they just couldn’t offer us an extension this time,” said Arbaugh. “It’s kind of unfortunate news, but we did check into that.”

Walsh thanked Arbaugh for trying.

In May, the bid for the construction of the new plant came back about $27 million higher than what was previously projected. At that time, the city was expecting the cost of building a new wastewater treatment plant around $62 million prior to going out to bid.

The city then rebid the project and awarded those bids on Monday.

The city has received a $4 million grant and $57.5 million loan from the state’s PennVEST Authority to build the new sewage plant.

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