Plum Awards Bid for Pond Retrofit

It's all downstream from here for two retaining ponds in the borough. And yes, that's a good thing.

Council voted unanimously at its regular meeting Monday night to award a contract for retrofitting of two of the borough's water detention ponds. The retrofitting will reduce flooding and improve water quality discharge, according to officials.

Council awarded low bidder BJC Enterprises of Monroeville the contract for the job. The company will have 30 days from when the bid was awarded Monday night to complete the project, said Greg Bachy, assistant borough manager.

BJC Enterprises bid $49,595 to perform the work. The only other bidder, Pampena Landscaping and Construction of Plum, put in a bid of $53,521. Council reviewed the bids at its work session last Monday.

One pond is located at Briar Wood Hills along New Texas Road and the other at the Rockland Manor development on Cobblestone Drive. The ponds collect storm water from developments, Bachy said.

“What it’s going to do is it’s going to improve the water quality discharge from the ponds and reduce the volume of water coming out of the ponds,” he said.

The retrofits will help the retention ponds send less water into Little Plum Creek and will help reduce downstream flooding, Bachy said.

The borough received the funds for the job through a grant from the state’s Growing Greener Grants program. The borough put in for the grant almost two years ago and developed the proposal with the help of engineers Blazosky Associates, Inc. and the state Department of Environmental Protection, Bachy said.

“There was a lot of engineering testing that went into this before it went to bid,” he said.