The Penn Forest board of supervisors experienced sticker shock Monday when the bid package for a park project was opened.

At the May meeting the supervisors approved a motion for Barry Isett and Associates to put out a bid package for the second phase of the park that is located along Route 903.The bid packages called for work to begin immediately and to be complete by Oct. 31. This phase would include the sports fields, basketball courts and tennis courts as well as completion of the walking path.Only two responses to the request for bids were received. One of those was from Bruce George Paving and Excavation Inc., and that was a no bid. The other bid was from the firm that built the bulk of the first phase, Papillon and Moyer.The bids greatly exceeded the board's expectation of cost.The base bid was $2,144,893, not including any of the wish list alternatives, such as an additional basketball court or a second tennis court. The alternate items increased the bid by another $250,000."This is the wrong time of year to put this job out for bids," project engineer Greg Pavlick said. "January is when these companies are looking for work for this time of year."Pavlick also informed the board that once the initial grants are properly closed out, the township would be in a position to apply for more grant money to complete the park. He said the grants cycle throughout the year, so new opportunities come up every three months or so.The board decided to reject the bid of Papillon and Moyer and to consider rebidding phase two at another time.Township resident Walter Gibbon raised some concern with the removal of topsoil from the park site during construction."I personally saw 300 to 400 loads of top soil left that site," Gibbons said. "It went somewhere."Gibbons, who said he has lived here much of his life and knows that topsoil here is "gold," wanted to know why the township would allow the removal of the soil."The original contract allowed the contractor to decide where the scrap or cut went," Pavlick said.Pavlick agreed that the extra time before rebidding the second phase would allow the township the opportunity to look closer at the plan and maybe modify the original design to eliminate some of the cut (removal of soil and rocks to level the property). The current design calls for 30,000 to 40,000 cubic yards of cut. Pavlick would like to see the plan revised to incorporate more of that soil back onto the property.In other businessThe township also voted to award a contract to Shiffer Bituminous Service Co. in Kunkletown for $88,091.20 to tar and chip 4.3 miles of township roads. The money for the project will come from the liquid fuels account. Only one bid was received.Last month the board approved a motion to proceed with drilling a well at the park. The quote that was received from Duane Moyer Well Drilling Inc. included an estimate of 140 feet for a total of less than $5,000. The supervisors agreed that since they could not be sure the 140 feet was a reliable number they amended their motion to grant the contract to Moyer, not to exceed $9,999.Supervisor Christine Fazio made a motion to write off $2,544.08 in uncollectable garbage bills. These bills were for nine properties that had already gone through foreclosure, bankruptcy or sheriff's sale and all possible funds had been collected by the township."Don't get me wrong," Fazio said. "We intend to still try and collect every penny we can on overdue bills, but on these properties we would just be spitting into the wind."