WELLSVILLE — The plans for the Buckeye Water District’s (BWD) new administration building were halted when a vote conducted during Thursday’s special board of trustees meeting to put the project back out to bid failed with a 5-4 vote against it.

District Manager Al DeAngelis told the board before the vote that he spoke with engineer Dallis Dawson of Dallis Dawson and Associates who said there were things in the plans that could be bumped or maneuvered a little bit that could take the cost down around to the amount they were at, but it would be up to the board.

With no further discussion and motion by board member Bob Wines and a second by board member George Kosko, the vote was taken and went as follow: Don Harris, yes; David Dawson, board president, no; Paul Bahen, no; Rick Williams, no; Wines, yes; Jim Hoppel, no; Frank Wise, no; Kosko, yes and Dean Devitt, yes.

Dawson said based on the vote, the project would not go out to bid again, and it would be some time in the future when the board would look at it again.

Following the vote Wines spoke out against the failed vote and expressed his disagreement with the way the vote went.

Wines said he was really concerned with not putting the project back out to bid and kicking it down the road when there has already been a lot of money put in it.

Wines also said that he thought it would be a terrible situation for the water district to not put that back out for bid, because it was explained to them that they could probably get the cost down to original amount and it was already approved before.

Dawson told Wines he appreciated the discussion, but they voted, and they were going to adjourn the meeting.

When members tried to continue the discussion asking why there was no discussion about an alternative and why this was being stopped in the bidding process, Dawson said they weren’t going to get into discussion, and he adjourned the meeting.

Wines continued to question why there was no discussion to an alternative.

There was no discussion on why it was voted against.

DeAngelis said in a phone call after the meeting that the project needed to go out for a rebid because the bid came in at more than 20%, and they can’t accept a bid at 20% over that threshold.

He noted that he is not sure what the board’s plans are on whether they will look at the project at a later date or not.

When asked what he thought about how the vote went since the district really wanted and needed this building, he responded, “It’s a board decision so whatever the board says that’s how it’s going to go. I don’t have no response for it one way or the other.”

The district has invested $250,000 into the project for engineering services for it and if the project doesn’t go back out for rebid, the district is out of that money.

The BWD has government funding for the building through a USDA grant of approximately $4.8 million.

DeAngelis said the bid came in at $5.3million which put them $500,000 over. He also noted the estimate came in at $4.3 million, which being $430,000 over the estimate is why they couldn’t bid it.

With the government shut down, DeAngelis is unable to get hold of the USDA to find out how they have to use those funds for the new building before they lose them.

kgarabrandt@mojonews.com