At its July 16 meeting, Elizabethtown Borough Council unanimously approved to recommend to PennDOT that Lobar Construction of Dillsburg is the low bidder for the train station project.
By all accounts from members of Borough Council, it was a historic moment to vote on the recommendation. For at least 10 years, Borough Manager Pete Whipple and the rest of the borough staff have worked on the project. Although 12 to 18 months of actual construction work remains, it is an honor to have been a part of the project for which other council members and leaders laid the groundwork.
Lobar came in with a bid of nearly $5.9 million. The borough received seven bids, which were extremely competitive. The difference between Lobar and the No. 2 bidder was just $7,000.
For the record, under an agreement between PennDOT and Elizabethtown, the project cannot be altered so the borough can keep all of the stimulus money. Elizabethtown was in line to receive $8 million in federal stimulus funding for the construction, and because the winning bid was much lower the borough will return a balance of the funding so more money will be available for other projects along Amtrak's Keystone Corridor. Speaking as one council member, this is the absolute right thing to do, and I am very grateful that this project is coming to fruition.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Because of ongoing spam passed off as comments, I have instituted a policy of moderating all comments. I will receive an e-mail when you comment and will review to ensure they are appropriate. For the record, this is not an effort to censor anyone except spammers hawking offensive websites and inappropriate and unrelated content. I pledge to post all comments, regardless of whether they are critical of me and my writing or not.