Pennsburg's planned renovation of the municipal building, its maintenance garage and the former recycling center will most likely be pared back. On Tuesday, council voted unanimously -- without discussion -- to approve a motion to reject all bids for the work. The members also directed the municipality's engineer to rebid the revised scope of work.

            After the workshop meeting, engineer Terrence Naugle, of Great Valley Consultants, disclosed the totals of each of the two bids the borough received. Both exceeded the initial project cost by at least $1 million, which the engineer described as substantially over budget. Naugle said the bids could put the entire project in jeopardy.

            Spear Excavating, LLC, of Pennsburg, submitted a bid of $2.3 million. Uhrig Construction, Inc., of Reading, offered to complete the work for $2.8 million. Three other companies picked up building specifications.

            "I was very surprised," said Naugle, who estimated the total cost to reach between $1.7 million and $1.9 million.

            Municipal officials had planned on utilizing a $1.351 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make several renovations at borough headquarters, located at 76 W. 6th St., upgrade the municipal garage and expand the former recycling center. However, the costs for several individual projects came in much higher than expected, according to the engineer.

            The engineer said he planned on sitting down with a USDA official to redo the scope of the project and figure out what alternatives to include. Naugle said new specifications would be developed in approximately three weeks.

            According to the engineer, the largest discrepancies came in the cost to repair the garage (more than $1 million), add to the recycling center ($500,000), and repair the roof on the municipal building. Borough officials estimated the cost of the work between $150,000 and $160,000, half as much as the low bid of $300,000.

            In terms of the municipal building upgrades, the roof repair, exterior wall improvements and the removal of glass blockings will be included, said President Diane Stevens.

A canopy leading to the front door will likely be included as an alternative, according to Naugle.

Administrative Manager Lisa Hiltz said the municipality must make sure the garage and recycling center are renovated. She said the borough can't continue taking out loans to fix minor issues.

            "We have to make this money go as far as possible," Hiltz said.

            Initially, municipal officials planned on replacing the roof and repairing minimal underlayment damage at the Civic Building at an estimated cost of $167,680. A budget estimate sheet obtained from municipal officials calls for replacing windows, glass blocks and doors ($115,134), installing EIFS (a type of synthetic stucco) over the bricks instead of repointing them ($109,680), purchasing a new emergency generator ($42,492), installing a main entrance canopy ($31,383) interior renovations ($29,900) and site work ($20,500).

            Member Adam Krisko did not attend the meeting. Mayor Charles Shagg and Solicitor Daniel I. Sager participated in the meeting via telephone.