Fourth Bid Rejected for Hockey Rink Repair

officials took what is becoming the usual step for what to do with bids submitted for the proposed repair and resurfacing of a padlocked roller hockey rink at Harry Dunham park—they voted to reject.

But this time, Bruce McArthur said the reason for declining to award a contract was there was a "fatal flaw" in the paperwork for the $115,000 proposal.

Other than a mistake in the bid bond, McArthur said the bid was a legitimate proposal from a legitimate company. He said the township could seek a bid on the project for a fifth time.

This latest bid also was the first bid to fall within the township's budget for the project, initially set at $125,000, then increased to $175,000 after initial bids in 2011 came in too high.

Two of the three previous bids failed to come in under budget, while another also had flawed paperwork, officials said at meetings.

The most recent bid advertisement would have the township's public works department assisting with a plan to resurface a cracked asphalt topping, address drainage and replace moldy sideboards, officials said earlier.

In a continuing legal attempt at blocking a contract award to provide a new asphalt surface, township resident Doug Wicks has maintained that installing a plastic tiles surface would be cheaper and more durable.

But the township's engineer, Tom Timko, has repeated said that no new surface can be put on the facility without addressing a drainage issue that Wicks contends doesn't exist.