Politics & Government

Township Sued Over Solar Project Award

The Sewerage Authority's decision to award Dobco, Inc with the contract for the planned solar panel field at the treatment facility is being challenged in court.

The Bernards Township Sewerage Authority is facing litigation from two bidders for the solar power project planned at the Sewage Treatment Facility on Martinsville Road.

Vanguard Energy Partners and APS Contractors have filed lawsuits against the Authority for their decision to award the solar project contract to Dobco, Inc. on March 9.

The bidding process is constructed so that the Authority must award the project to the lowest, responsible bidder. APS submitted the lowest price, according to Sewerage Authority Administrator Peter Messina, but the details of their application led the Authority to pass on the offer.

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"They did not submit a lot of the information that they should have so we disqualified them," Messina said. APS did not include details about the experience of the firm in handling solar panel projects similar to the one in Bernards Township, for example, Messina said.

APS will challenge the decision that they did not submit a responsive, responsible application along with the lowest bid.

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Vanguard, which submitted a bid with a higher cost than APS, Dobco and one other company, will also challenge the decision based on the qualifications of the three energy providers bidding lower amounts.

The energy company felt that the experience level of all three lower bidders should have disqualified them from receiving the contract, according to Messina.

The court date for both suits is scheduled for May 10, and is expected to be resolved quickly.

"I was told that this is the sort of thing that the judge makes a decision on the same day, so hopefully it does not hold up construction," Messina said.

The project is worth nearly $5 million to the successful bidder–Dobco's winning bid was to complete the project at a cost of $4.278 million.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed one of the companies as APS Energy Services. The firm now correctly reads APS Contractors.

Once completed, the solar field is estimated to save the township around $135,000 a year in energy costs and up to $500,000 a year in Solar Energy Renewable Credit payments.


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