LEWISBURG – More questions for the Union County Housing Authority about a new affordable housing project in East Buffalo Township. At their meeting Wednesday, the authority fielded questions about their choice of a contractor for the Penn Commons development.
Matt Schumacher, East Buffalo Township supervisor asked whether the job was sent out to bid to get the best possible price, “My concern is that they did not competitively bid it so they aren’t getting the best bang their buck. The contractor who was chosen is not from this area, and there are plenty of contractors in this area that weren’t given the opportunity to try to bid for the work.”
Union County Housing Associates made the final decision on the contractor and chose Caldwell, Heckles and Egan, Inc. of Lancaster.
Bruce Quigley, executive director of the UCHA says the contractor pool was still competitive, “The contractor was considered from among a pool of contractors who have experience doing projects like this one. It’s incumbent on the contractor to be competitive, because the project hadn’t been selected for funding yet when they were involved and developed their prices. So, they need to be competitive or the project will be less competitive.”
The housing authority also announced a change of time for the public meetings to 10:30a.m. on the third Wednesday of the month. (Sarah Benek)
