Sanitary Board Project $750,000 Under Budget; WV DEP Authorizes Trucks, CCTV Equipment, Fan Press, Garage Addition Expenditures

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - 00:31 by Tony Rutherford HuntingtonNews.Net Reporter

HUNTINGTON, WV (HNN) – A memorandum from the Huntington Sanitary Board confirms that the Hal Greer Sewer Expansion Project will come in about $726,000 underbid. Loretta Covington, executive director, stated in the memorandum to council chairman Mark Bates that the WV DEP has given “permission … to use the difference of bid price and engineers price to purchase much needed equipment.”

At the Huntington City Council meeting Monday, Feb. 28, neither chairman Mark Bates or director of administration/finance, Brandi Jacobs-Jones, stated they were unaware of the Sanitary Board purchases.

Activist Tom McCallister had asked council two weeks previously whether the project had come in under bid.

A question arose immediately whether the purchases by the Sanitary Board --- all over $25,000 --- required the approval of Huntington City Council.

“We’re going to find out,” Mark Bates said.

Bates asked Jim Insco to chair a committee to look into the Board’s actions.

The memorandum stated that the Sanitary Board had made the following purchases after have “requested and receiving permission” from the WV Department of Environmental Protection:

1. Garage Addition, $125,000

2. Dual Rotary Fan Press, $500,000

3. New CCTV Equipment, $125,000

4. Trucks $76,000 (Three Dodge Dakota’s extended cabs and two Ford 150 (4WD) to replace existing trucks over 20 years old

5. 2008 Hino Dump Truck, $61,645.

In addition, Bates told McCallister that “we are working to appoint new people” to the Sanitary Board. At the Thursday work session, Insco and Alex Vence, had been present for interviews before council’s personnel committee. However, city attorney Scott McClure told the committee that Insco could not serve as he was an elected official.

At the council meeting, council postponed a vote on Vence nomination to the board. Insco withdrew his name from consideration.

Russ Houck, chairman of the personnel committee, did not attend the council meeting.