City chooses new engineering firm
Royalton Recorder City chooses new engineering firm
The North Royalton City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance that would replace the firm that the city has been dealing with for many years that provided the City Engineer and Assistant City Engineer.
The ordinance replaces Richard L. Bowen and Associates, City Engineer Mark Schmitzer and Assistant Engineer Dan Collins, with CT Consultants, Incorporated, as consulting engineer, providing engineering services to the city, and approving the appointment of Justin Haselton, P.E. as City Engineer. Bowen has served the city since 2008. "It has been a pleasure serving the City of North Royalton for the past 13 years," said Schmitzer. "All of us at Richard L. Bowen & Associates wish nothing but success and growth to this wonderful community we have called home!"
Mayor Larry Antoskiewicz said that he received an email from Bowen right before the holidays ending the agreement with the city. They had been working on a month-by-month situation, as he said, the previous Mayor, Bob Stefanik, had not signed off on a new contract, and neither did he. "They were going month-to-month for several years." Antoskiewicz said that they "were in the process of realigning their engineering staff, as Collins was leaving their company, which put them short. They decided with the other cities they were servicing and that since they were on a a month-to-month, they would cut their service."
Anotskiewicz said that early last year, he sent out a Request for Proposal for engineering services. "After thirteen years, I wanted to see what the possibilities were." Bowen and two other companies responded. It was at that point when COVID hit, stated Antoskiewicz. "When COVID hit, I decided to keep things the same. There was enough going on."
The termination by Bowen has allowed for not only a new firm, but possibly a new manner in which the city utilizes their Engineering Department. Antoskiewicz said that the new contract will have a 90-day review period. "During that time, we are going to look at the way we are doing our engineering, because there is still some discrepancy of what we need and what they can offer," said Antoskiewicz. "We are going to look at the whole process during this 90 day." Antoskiewicz said that during that time, he will evaluate the new firm, but also the work addressed by the city's Engineering Department. An example is the current storm water work that has been handled by the Engineering Department. "We give our engineers some of the work that can be done by our storm water crews," he said.
"I am looking forward to working with this new engineering company, " said Antoskiewicz. "I'm confident we can move forward."