Members of the Newark Village Board brought MRB Group engineers in charge of the village’s wastewater treatment plant upgrade to task at their last meeting February 21st.
Trustee Alan Schober wanted to know why the $23 million upgrade hadn’t been completed yet. The board approved the project back in 2010 to meet new requirements at the aging plant set by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. According to Schober, the project was expected to have been completed nearly a year ago, but work continues.
MRB representatives, the village’s engineers, told the board there have been some problems with the contractors. They said in essence the contractors have not been working together to get the job done on schedule. As of the meeting MRB said they had already exceeded their agreed upon contract with the village. The engineers said they have been pushing the contractors to complete jobs over the last several months and are holding back all pay outs until the project is complete.
Historically, the engineers said, these contractors have all been great to work with and believe the problem has been about staffing at the work site.
The MRB engineers said they would continue to push for the work to be completed. The next step would be to seek reimbursement costs for exceeding contract schedules.
– Tammy Whitacre, FingerLakes1.com
