Reading City Council approves $137 million sewer project

Building and trade union leaders were in City Hall again Monday night to rail against the city's plan to award four contracts for reconstructing the wastewater treatment plant on Fritz's Island.

City Council voted Monday night to award more than $137 million in construction, electrical, plumbing and HVAC contracts for the plant. In terms of cost and size, the sewer plant reconstruction represents the single biggest project ever undertaken by the city, said City Managing Director W. Glenn Steckman III.

Councilman Chris Daubert and Council Vice President Donna Reed voted against two of the contracts. They said it was partly because of the size of the project, and because the lion's share of the money would be leaving Reading and Berks County.

Council voted 5-2 to award the general contracting duties to Michael F. Ronca & Sons of Bethlehem for $121,221,000; the electrical contract to Brendan Stanton, Inc., of Montgomeryville, for $13,092,280.

Council voted 7-0 to award the the HVAC contract to MBR HVAC Services of Blandon for $2,577,000.

The plumbing contract went to Vision Mechanical of West Reading for $733,000. Reed and Daubert voted in favor of awarding the plumbing work to Vision Mechanical because it is a local firm.

Brian McMahon, head of the Steamfitters Union, and Ryan Helms, business manager for the electricians union in Berks County, each said they were unfairly cut out of the bidding process. The prior two rounds of bidding included a Project Labor Agreement, which ensures that union labor would be used on the project.

Former Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer attended the council session because he said he couldn't believe the city was going to move ahead on the huge construction project without a PLA in place.

Helms said a key feature of the PLA is that local servicemen returning from deployment and local students would be the first ones hired on the job and that all the millions spent by the city would stay in Reading and Berks County.

"They said they want to include an apprenticeship but who do they think is going to run the program," Helms said. "That's a union initiative."

However, Steckman said Mayor Wally Scott thought the city could save money by bidding the project a third time without a PLA and the low bids came in $6 million lower that the second round of bids.

Members voting for the contracts each said that while they too favored using local labor and keeping the money in the city and the county, there was the matter of a federal consent decree that requires the city to finish the plant project by 2019.

City Public Works Director Ralph Johnson said even if the city awarded the contracts Monday night, the city would not make the U.S. Justice Department deadline.

"But we're months out, not years," Johnson said.

Source: Reading Eagle