DuBOIS — The Sandy Township Supervisors, at last week’s meeting, voted to award a bid to repair the public works garage roof to Blair Roofing at a cost of $68,600.
Manager Shawn Arbaugh said there have been significant leaking issues for many years at the public works garage roof. The township did put out public bid to replace the roof in 2021, and the bids came in really high. The township went out to bid to replace the roof again in 2022 and much of the feedback it was receiving on the bid advertisement was that the bids were going to come in high again.
Arbaugh said the township also found a company on a state contract to give them a quote again and it was also extremely high and not feasible for the township to do.
“At the end of summer last year we had public works employees go up and manually replace every screw and washer and then use a sealant on those areas,” said Arbaugh. “Unfortunately, that caused more leaking than we had previously.”
This year, Arbaugh said the township then reached out to several companies and explained to them that they don’t have a lot of money to replace the roof, but asked what they can do to make it last for a long time.
“Three people gave us some proposals, all different methods to repair that,” said Arbaugh. “We did have two industry experts review those proposals and both of them agreed that Blair Roofing was the best option for us to prevent leaks. They did also carry a 20-year warranty and are on a COSTARS contract so that we can award the bid to them.”
COSTARS is the state’s cooperative purchasing agreement.
Arbaugh said his recommendation, along with the staff’s recommendation, is to award the public works garage roof bid in the amount of $68,600 to Blair Roofing.
“We had $75,000 put in capital reserves to do this project,” said Arbaugh.
Supervisor Kevin Salandra said he had two concerns.
“One is the upcoming consolidation, we’re not sure what we’re going to do with these buildings. We think they might be necessary, but we haven’t resolved that yet and I hate to spend $68,000 on a roof,” said Salandra. “Second of all, I understand that it’s a state contract so there is no requirement to bid it, but I feel that we should bid it and give the local contractors an opportunity to see if there’s a better value out there.”
“We are still three years away and three years away from worst becoming our worst nightmare,” said Supervisor Barry Abbott via telephone. “I would make a motion to award Blair the project for the roofing.”
“You do realize Barry though, just because they’re on the state contract and we don’t have to bid doesn’t mean that it’s the best price or that we wouldn’t get a better price,” said Salandra.
“I understand that, but I listened very carefully to what Shawn recommended and he did over the course of the past couple years, went out, tried to get people to bid, the bids were high,” said Abbott.
“That was for a different project. That was for replacing…,” said Salandra.
Abbott also noted how Arbaugh had two industry experts review Blair Roofing’s option and decided it was the best option for the township.
“They (experts) thought the product was going to be better, last us longer, and they had worked with them in the past and had good experiences,” said Arbaugh.
Supervisor Mark Sullivan second Abbott’s motion to award the bid to Blair Roofing. The motion was approved in a 3-1 vote, with Sam Mollica also voting favor while Salandra voted no. Supervisors’ Chairman Bill Beers was excused from the meeting.
Secretary/Treasurer position
Arbaugh said the township is in the process of hiring a secretary/treasurer to replace longtime secretary Shelly Reasinger, who retired, effective March 17.
“We have had about 28 candidates so far,” said Arbaugh. “We have some real promising ones and look forward to moving that process along. So if anybody is interested and qualified, please tell them to submit their resume and application and the information can be found on our website, sandytownship.net.”