Four Tamaqua water tanks each hold more than a million gallons, and it's going to cost the borough water authority more than $1 million to paint them.

During a meeting Monday afternoon, Public Works Director Rob Jones and Tamaqua Borough Manager Kevin Steigerwalt opened 12 bids for the project, which involves painting the holding tanks located in Still Creek, Hometown, Owl Creek and Tamaqua's North Ward. Jones said that two of the tanks will be painted in 2015 and two in 2016.The tanks were erected in 1993. He explained that water service to customers won't be affected."A water system is required to have storage tanks, so it won't affect the water supply to customers when one storage tank is taken out of service to be painted," Jones explained. "It will take approximately three months per tank, because they have to be painted inside and outside, and we'll do them one at a time."The painting project should start in April and wind up in early November. Bids came from five states, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Michigan and Virginia. The lowest bid was $1,103,600 from Horizon Brothers Painting Corp., Howell, Michigan; and the highest bid was $2,487,131 from Utility Service Company, Camillus, New York.Steigerwalt said that the bids would be turned over to the borough's engineer and solicitor for review, and scheduled to be awarded during the water authority meeting at 7:30 p.m. March 16. In addition to the bid amount, factors such as the experience level of the company will be factored into the deliberations.After the meeting he said that the cost will be absorbed into a refinancing of the water authority debt."We took a loan and paid off our debt service; actually reducing it by about $70,000," Steigerwalt said. "This is part of a bigger project which also involves upgrades to the Still Creek water treatment plant."The bidders for the project were: Amstar of Western New York, Cheektowaga, New York, $1,686,000; Corrosion Control Corp., Pedricktown, New Jersey, $1,583,710; D & M Painting Corp., Washington, Pennsylvania, $1,625,140; G.C. Zarnas & Co., Bethlehem, $1,536,000; Global Contracting & Painting, Inc., Colden, New York, $1,344,000.Also, Horizon Bros. Painting Corp., Howell, Michigan, $1,103,600; I.K. Stoltzfus Service Corp., Manheim, $1,241,000; Nostos SS Contractors, Reston, Virginia, $1,596,740; Pro-Spec Painting, Vineland, New Jersey, $1,798,200; Utility Service Co., Camillus, New York, $2,487,131; V & T Painting, Farmington Hills, Michigan, $1,130,000; and Worldwide Industries Corp., Butler, $1,251,754.