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Port Clinton council adopts emergency ordinance to repair wastewater plant and failing lift station, 6-1 vote
Summary
City Council passed Ordinance 20-25 on first reading with emergency clause, authorizing the Director of Safety and Service to contract with Verdantas for engineering services to address HVAC and the Brooklyn Street lift station; motions to waive bidding and readings passed 6-1 with Richard Morgan opposed.
Port Clinton City Council on July 8 adopted Ordinance 20-25, a time-sensitive emergency measure authorizing the Director of Safety and Service to contract with Verdantas for engineering services covering design, bidding and construction phases to repair the city's wastewater treatment plant and replace the deteriorating Brooklyn Street sanitary lift station.
Director of Safety and Service Mr. Colston told Council the wastewater facility has been without HVAC for about a year and staff used propane blowers to heat the building this past winter. He said the Brooklyn Street lift station is deteriorating and "consequently going to fail in the very near future," describing a typical sanitary lift station lifespan as about 20 years and noting the Brooklyn Street unit is 24 years old.
To expedite work, the Administration asked Council to waive formal bidding. Council approved a sequence of motions: Jerry Tarolli moved to waive bidding requirements (seconded by Margaret Phillips); the motion carried on a voice roll call, 6-1 (Richard Morgan opposed). Tarolli then moved to waive the three required readings (seconded by Avery Robinson); that motion also passed 6-1. The Council voted to retain the ordinance's emergency clause (motion by Tarolli, second Robinson), and then to adopt Ordinance 20-25 (motion by Tarolli, second Robinson). Each motion passed 6-1, with Mr. Morgan the sole dissent.
Tarolli defended the expedited approach as a necessary response to an imminent infrastructure failure: "Sometimes we have to do what we have to do," he said. The ordinance authorizes the Director of Safety and Service to enter into a contract with Verdantas for engineering services for design, bidding and construction phases without formal advertising and bidding and declares the measure an emergency to allow immediate action.
The motion outcomes were recorded by roll call: yes votes from Beth Gillman, Margaret Phillips, Pat Hovis, Avery Robinson, Cathy King and Jerry Tarolli; no vote from Richard Morgan. The ordinance was adopted with the emergency clause intact. The next procedural step is for the Director of Safety and Service to proceed with engineering contracting and project planning under the authority granted by the ordinance.
