Westwood Council Members Apologize to Borough Engineer for Bill Dispute, Vote to Pay $123,000 Owed

Several council members apologized Tuesday night to the borough's engineer for their prior handling of a bill for the project. They said they were wrong when they blamed the firm for waiting to send a bill. Instead, they said they found out the bill had arrived months before they were notified.

Council President Robert Miller said that the borough had originally received a bill from Boswell Engineering for $123,000 last February, with follow-ups in March, April and May. He said members of the governing body weren't made aware of the bill until June 13, when a letter from the firm was brought up at a council meeting.

The problem with the timing was that council members were making decisions about the Westvale Park project believing they had money to spend.

"We didn't know these bills were in house. We, at that time, thought we had money available," Miller said. "We were not running in the black. We were running in the red on this project."

The park project did go over budget. Stephen Boswell, president and CEO of Boswell Engineering, said Tuesday night that the overall cost for the project is $2.72 million, about 9 percent over the original bid price. Some of the overrun can be attributed to unexpected garbage found on the site, but Boswell said without that, the project would have been 2 to 3 percent over the original bid price.

At past meetings, council members asked representatives from the engineering firm why the $123,000 bill wasn't brought to their attention earlier. They said their language wasn't always kind.

"We owe you an apology," Councilwoman Cynthia Waneck said. "You were lambasted up here and that was not appropriate."

But Mayor John Birkner Jr. said he didn't think apologies were necessary. "I think it was diligence on the borough's part to review the bills," he said.

He added that he didn't believe the firm's representatives were lambasted at council meetings. "There was no insinuation that there was any wrongdoing on the part of Dr. Boswell," Birkner said, adding the governing body wanted to make sure the design fees were appropriate.

Borough Administrator Robert Hoffmann said that with the help of Boswell staff, he has been able to identify "structural deficiencies" and figure out a system to better handle tracking of job numbers to identify which projects, or portions of projects, are associated with specific bills.

Council members unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday night to pay the $123,000 bill.