McKean County Courthouse Steps Contract: Bond Required

By MARTHA KNIGHT
Era Correspondent

SMETHPORT — McKean County officials say no performance and payment bonds, no contract. The apparent low bidder says he was given to understand no bonds were needed. The officials maintain it’s the law and bidders are supposed to know. The contractor is threatening legal action, and his attorney has suggested the McKean County Commissioners are exposing themselves to a personal surcharge for the “excess cost.”

That was the situation that prevailed Saturday after Harold G. Carr of CDMS Architectural & Engineering Consultants, St. Marys, McKean County Commissioners’ solicitor Daniel J. Hartle and CDMS’s attorney had exchanged letters on the matter in the past several days.

As it stands, the second lowest bidder, Bob Cummins of Bradford, will rebuild the upper set of steps at the McKean County Courthouse, having been tapped for the work the week before last after CDMS had was deemed to have washed out of full execution of a contract with the county based on its low bid.  Read original article