Tyrone Borough Council has approved bids for work to repair the municipal building on Logan Avenue.
The borough’s building was built in 1916 and has seen upgrades over the years including those related to Americans with Disabilities Act issues.
Bids for the latest upgrades had previously been advertised, received and opened prior to council’s actions last week. Members were presented with the bids for the repointing, cleaning and step repair of the building.
One of the bids was from Allegheny Restoration Inc., Greensburg and the other came from another business from the same town, Raimondo Masonry Restoration Contractors.
The step repair bid from Allegheny Restoration was $34,000. The bid for the repointing and other exterior work was $74,000. The total bid came to $108,000. The bid from Raimondo Masonry was for $22,100 for the step repair and $37,400 for the repointing. The total bid was $59,500.
Interim Borough Manager Sharon Dannaway recommended council accept the low bid from Raimondo Masonry and it was approved unanimously.
Yesterday, Dannaway told The Daily Herald that work was expected begin within two weeks of the low bidder receiving a the notice to proceed from the borough. She said the borough was waiting on paper work from Raimondo Masonry before issuing the notice to proceed. She said a letter was sent by the borough last Friday requesting the information from the company. She estimated work could be under way within a month from the bid being approved last week. Dannaway said the project would take about six weeks to complete once it was started.
In other business at last week’s meeting, council decided what to do with some old cell phones after recently upgrading its communications system.
Dannaway suggested donating the phones as an option for council to consider in making its decision. She suggested the domestic abuse shelter and the local American Legion as two organizations that could benefit from the donation. She noted the Legion collects used cell phones and ink cartridges and money it receives from selling them to recyclers are then used to aid the family and children of soldiers killed in Iraq. Council decided to split the donation of the cell phones between the two organizations.
Council also decided to sell a parcel it owned at 1113 Washington Avenue to the lone bidder, Matthew Woomer, for his bid price of $2,200. The building on the property had fallen into dilapidation and the borough obtained it from its previous owner with an eye on tearing down and removing the building.
The borough took care of clearing the property a few months ago using its own funding. At one point, it had planned to use spot blight money through CDBG funding. However, due to the amount of time needed to get the project approved through the funding process, Tyrone Borough decided to pay for the project on its own.
Additionally last week, Council approved Dairy Day in the borough. The Blair County Chamber of Commerce Farm-City Committee requested having the day this Wednesday. Dannaway advised council that Farm-City Committee members would be distributing free ice cream sundaes at the Farmers’ Market this week in order to commemorate the day.
Finally, Tyrone Borough has decided to hold a special council meeting this week for the purpose of finalizing plans for swimming pool improvements as well as any additional business which comes before it. Plans call for extensive work to be done at the pool after the current season ends in September.
Last week, council heard details about the plans from its engineer, Ray Myers. He detailed renovations which are estimated to cost upwards of a half-a-million dollars depending on exactly which options council decides it wants to use for the improvements.
The special council meeting will be held this Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Tyrone Municipal Building.
