(3/8) The Liberty Township supervisors awarded Kinsley Construction a road improvement package at their March meeting that will address issues involving four township roads.
The township received bids from three companies - Kinsley Construction, Russell Standard, and AAA Paving & Excavating Ð but not all of the contractors bid on all of the work proposed, or bid different amounts on different specific aspects of the proposed work.
Rather than award the different aspects of the proposed road work to more than one company, the supervisors decided to award the contract for all the work to one bidder Ð that being Kinsley Construction at $114,420, which was about $21,000 over the initial cost estimate.
The township roads which will be the subject of improvements include Brent, McGlaughlin, Irishtown and Bullfrog roads.
According to the bid specifications, work which will be taking place on Brent, McGlaughlin, and Irishtown will include the placement of an aggregate (coarse-to-medium-grained gravel) surface which will then be sealed with a coating of asphalt emulsion. Bullfrog is to receive the same treatment É less the coating of asphalt emulsion.
Regarding dropping one or more aspects of the proposed road improvements to avert the $21,000 overage, Board of SupervisorsÕ Vice-chairman Bob Jackson affirmed, ÒWe put a lot of time and effort in studying this, figuring out what we want to do. For $20,000 É in my opinion, we may well go ahead with what we planned,Ó adding, ÒI think our reserves can stand that.Ó
Supervisors Bobby Keilholtz stated, ÒI hate to see us kick-the-can down the road (by excluding some of the proposed roadwork) É theyÕre getting worse by the day. I think our citizens need better roads than weÕve been providing in some cases.Ó
In other township business, Police Chief Sherri Hansen told the supervisors that she would like to hear from other municipalities in the area who might be interested in having the Liberty Township Police provide police services for their respective communities,
The township police began providing police coverage for Freedom Township in January as the result of an agreement wherein Freedom is paying Liberty $16,500 annually for 25-hours per month in police-coverage.
Some municipalities that do not have their own police force, such as Hamiltonban Township, rely on State Police to provide police coverage. Others, such as Fairfield Borough, enter into contracts with neighboring police forces to acquire police services.
Hansen has made an offer to Hamilton to provide police coverage, but as yet É the Hamiltonban Township supervisors have not acted on the offer.
