Council approves loan increase and Kenmore contract for Pump Station No. 6 replacement

Summit County Council’s committee on public works voted to authorize the executive to apply for and execute a $1 million additional loan from the Water Pollution Control Loan Fund and to confirm a construction contract with Kenmore Construction Co. for replacement of Pump Station No. 6 (Project Q183) serving the cities of Hudson and Stow in Council District 3. A department representative from the county’s Department of Sanitary Sewer Services described the procurement history: the pump-station work received a single bid from Kenmore that was about 14% over the engineer’s estimate. “This is a specialty project that we believe supply change and available workers is creating the issue there,” the staff member said, explaining why the county is not asking for a new engineer’s estimate and is instead increasing the loan to cover the overage. The committee then considered a companion resolution confirming the Board of Control’s award of the construction contract to Kenmore in an amount stated as not to exceed $6,761,800. The committee voted to approve both the loan authorization and the contract confirmation. The staff member said the single-bid outcome and higher-than-estimated price are likely tied to labor and supply-chain constraints; the county did not provide a revised engineer’s estimate and said rebidding would likely produce similarly high prices. Councilman Lacotte moved the motions; both measures carried on committee votes. Funding and next steps: The loan increase would raise the project’s Water Pollution Control Loan Fund authorization to a total not to exceed $8,000,000 (the loan increase listed as an additional $1,000,000). The construction contract confirmation authorizes the county to execute the contract with Kenmore Construction Co. for Project Q183.