Conservation project to be rebid, Commissioners say / By Martha Knight

SMETHPORT—The McKean County Commissioners rejected the sole bid received for a stormwater drain management program, citing the high cost as a reason. The project will be rebid.

The Monday morning session included the bid opening for the demonstration project. The only quotation was from Warner Brook Excavating of Smethport, and was for $85,844.

Heather McKean, watershed conservationist, attended the meeting and bid opening. Commissioner Cliff Lane, long active in conservation matters and on the conservation district governing body, asked McKean the amount of the grant the conservation district had received for the demonstration project.

“$36,000,” McKean replied.

At this, Lane declared, “Seeing how this is a demonstration project, I can’t see funding for double what is available in grant funds. If it was just a couple thousand I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but it is more than double the grant funds that are available.”

Lane’s motion to reject the bid and call for a new round of bidding was seconded by commissioner Al Pingie, and when the vote was taken chairman Joe DeMott joined the others in approval of that strategy.

The storm water drainage project has been planned for a portion of the old County Home property that houses a number of the county’s agencies.

The commissioners did approve another project for which bids were opened last month, that of the upgraded to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in major areas of the court house.

The low bid of $480,000 from Mazza Mechanical Services, Inc., Olean, N.Y., was approved and will be the basis of a contract for the multi-phase project.

Pingie described the project by saying that there will be three new rooftop units. The first one will serve the main courtroom, the second will serve the west wing of the first floor, the third will serve the office wing on the same floor. Besides handling heating and reducing the burden on the existing boiler system, Pingie said, air conditioning will be supplied area-wide, so the window air conditioners now in use will no longer be needed.

The bid had been studied by the architects and maintenance director between the bid opening and Monday, and was found to match specifications and meet bidding requirements.

The commissioners approved agreements with 23 service providers as requested by the Department of Human Services, subject to review by solicitor Dan Hartle.

Also approved was naming ParenteBeard to audit 911 funds for the past three years. The authorization was needed to provide a separate contract for that part of the audit the commissioners had approved months ago. There is no additional cost.

Chief Assessor Angelia Tennies presented a report on the Clean and Green use values that will be applied to 2015 taxes by the county, its municipalities and school districts.

Tennies said the assessment office mailed 3,112 change of assessment notices on June 27, to the property owners whose assessments will be affected. She said another 1,475 properties are eligible but are not enrolled in the program.

According to Tennies, the new Clean and Green use rates set by the state and used by the assessment office are lower. This will decrease the tax base by $13,994,900 in assessed value, and tax revenues will drop $129,452.82.

Answering a question by DeMott as to whether any action by the commissioners was needed, on Tennies’ report, Hartle said, “No, the rates are set by the assessor.”

Tennies said that the state rates for Clean and Green tend to follow a five-year cycle, this being a fifth year in the current cycle. She anticipates that rates could go back up next year. She said she just learned about the Department of Forestry’s “recycle” schedule a couple of months ago.

The commissioners adopted a statement of support for the National Guard and the Reserve, pledging to honor and enforce the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

Bradford City’s county aid application for 2014, in the amount of $16,992, was approved. It will be used for a resurfacing project.

The commissioners’ regular “fourth Tuesday” meeting, which would have been held at 10 a.m. July 22, in the Court House, has been cancelled, DeMott said, but the commissioners will hold a special public meeting at 6 p.m. that evening, at the 911 Center, “concerning our intention to fix salaries for the elected officials” and to conduct other necessary county business.