Springdale water project nears completion, concerns persist

Springdale’s water plant renovation project is nearly completed, but when the project will be finished remains unknown.

Kevin Szakelyhidi of Bankson Engineering told council members during a lengthy special meeting on the project Tuesday that work is “99% complete.”

The state Department of Environmental Protection will do an inspection when the work is done. If problems are found, the contractor will have to address them and another inspection will be done.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, officials discussed change orders that they said subcontractor Right Electrical of Butler went ahead with without an OK from council.

The change orders, totaling $17,000, included:

• Installing fabricated lids for the brine tank.

• Installing a flow meter signal for the chlorine injector.

• Programming to add valves to the brine tank motor operation.

• Furnishing and installing a new enclosure for the water tank that will determine tank levels.

• Programming to the softener flow meters.

Council approved the additional $17,000 in change orders for the $7.1 million project, but several council members expressed dismay with Bankson Engineering for what they called a lack of oversight on the subcontractor.

Council President James Zurisko said council would talk with Solicitor Craig Alexander to see if any action could be taken against Right Electric for the then-unauthorized change orders.

Szakelyhidi said the project is expected to come in about $324,000 under budget.

Even with the savings and the project appearing to be nearing completion, it didn’t stop frustration from boiling over among council, water plant employees and Szakelyhidi over the four-year effort to modernize the water treatment plant.

A motion to retain Szakelyhidi was approved by a 7-0 vote.

A move to advertise for a new water plant engineer on a $400 monthly retainer failed 4-3.

“I hope you understand the frustration that council has,” Councilman Mike Ziencik told Szakelyhidi. “We have 65% of our residents on fixed incomes and we are raising their taxes, water bills and sewage bills.”