Work is set to begin next week on security improvements at the Unity Township Municipal Authority office near Pleasant Unity.

Marmat Inc. was awarded the project contract, at a cost of $96,545, and is expected to start by adding an emergency exit at the rear of the building.

According to authority engineer Donald Hixson of Lennon, Smith and Souleret Engineering, work tentatively is scheduled to shift to the foyer by the third week of October.

“It’s to make the lobby more secure and protect our staff,” said authority operations manager Doug Pike. Bullet-proof glass will be added in the receiving area.

Public access to the lobby will be interrupted at some point during the construction.

During the covid-19 pandemic, the authority has encouraged customers to conduct business with it remotely rather than coming in person to the office. Revised hours, from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. weekdays, are meant to allow staff time to sanitize common areas.

Masks are required when entering the authority office, and those who feel sick are asked to stay home.

A customer portal on the authority website, at utmapa.org, allows them to pay bills electronically. More than 1,000 of the authority’s 7,000 some customers have signed up for the electronic option, Pike said.

The office can be reached by calling 724-423-6888.

Flow monitoring gets boost

The authority, which treats sewage, is replacing a radio system that allows remote monitoring of its pump stations and flow meters. The authority board this week awarded the contract to Schultheis Electric, through a state bidding program, at a cost of $71,000.

A repeater will be placed on a township tower in the community of Charter Oak.

The authority will pay low bidder Stefanik’s Next Generation Contracting nearly $1.3 million to install permanent flow meters at a handful of locations in the township, in areas where waste water is sent to the neighboring Latrobe Municipal Authority for treatment. The project represents the first phase of flow monitoring by the Unity authority as part of its obligation under a state consent order.

Under the order, multiple authorities are taking steps to alleviate conditions, such as storm water infiltration, that could cause an excess of waste water to bypass the Latrobe treatment plant.

According to Hixson, the meter contract total is “a little more than our initial estimate, but this is specialty-type work. We had only two bidders.”

He said meters will be placed: along Mission Road, near Latrobe public works property; near a ramp at the junction of routes 30 and 982; off Center Drive, near Monastery Run; and along Mill Street in Youngstown.

In another project related to the consent order, State Pipe Services will be paid $1,083,043 to perform work over three years, through 2022, including repairing lines and raising manholes in an area along Nine Mile Run, where sewage flows to the Latrobe plant.

The authority also awarded a $269,905 contract to W.A. Petrakis Contracting and Landscaping Company, to replace a sewage main along Myers Road. The authority will be responsible for restoring any excavations in the road, which just received an application of tar and chips.

That bid came in at about $100,000 less than the projected cost, Hixson said.

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