On the agenda for the September 14th Council meeting was a Bond Ordinance #2026-1347 in regard to the library roof.

The agenda for Monday's meeting was posted to the Borough's website late over the weekend prior to last Monday's meeting. In reviewing the version posted online, the Ordinance indicated the bond was in the amount of $500,000. However, the paper agenda distributed during the Council meeting showed the figure had increased to $1,000,000.

The Ordinance called for the Borough to go out on bond. Going out to bond means the Borough is taking out a term loan to fund the project, with the cost repaid gradually through future budgets rather than all at once.

There has been an ongoing concern about the roof of the Manville Public Library leaking. This topic has been brought up in council meetings over the past several years. To date, the issue of the roof leaks remains unresolved.

At the meeting held on August 10th, a Resolution was passed to reject the bids for "the 2024 CDBG Manville Library investigate Pipe Network for Roof Drainage" which appears to be a grant to help fund the cost of investigating the roof drainage system at the library.

The bids were rejected "due to exceeding the estimated cost and in order to expend funds under the Community Development Block Grant, the Borough must receive 3 bids for consideration".

There was only one bid received. Two others were not considered. One bid did not submit all required documentation, and another was submitted via an improper method.

In regard to the library roof replacement cost, ManvilleToday submitted an OPRA request that stated that we are "requesting copies of the bid proposals, cost breakdowns, specific quotes for this project including communications between the Borough and contractors." On Friday, September 18th we were informed via email that "The Borough of Manville received your OPRA request. Request Received: No responsive records have been found."

Based on this OPRA response, it appears there is no documentation available for the initial $500,000 or the modified $1,000,000 amounts. A question of concern would be who provided the Borough with these amounts, and how were they calculated?

It appeared that the pipe inspection had to be completed first, before any repair work could begin on the roof. The Borough Administrator noted this during her response to the Mayor's concerns regarding the roof problems at the May 26th meeting.

When the Bond Ordinance was going to be introduced for first read, Mayor Onderko asked to have it removed from the agenda.

"I'm making a motion tonight to pull this ordinance for further discussion. If we need to have a special meeting sometime next week for capital issues, we will do so," stated Mayor Richard Onderko. The vote was unanimous to pull the Ordinance from the agenda.

We will continue to monitor the status of this Ordinance.