The Altoona Water Authority has hired a Camp Hill company to help it obtain grants for capital projects.

The authority will pay Delta Development Group $4,000 a month for 16 months, plus up to a total of $2,500 for “reasonable and ordinary” expenses connected with the firm’s efforts to help secure funding for the authority.

Authority General Manager Mark Perry negotiated the $2,500 cap on the added expenses after the authority board approved the agreement without a cap, but with the condition that solicitor Dave Gaines and Perry “massage the language” to limit what board members felt would be too “open-ended” provision.

That provision was initially uncapped because it’s difficult to define what sort of expenses company employees might incur in their efforts to obtain grants, according to Gaines, responding to concerns expressed by board member Barb Kooman.

Compared to a contract for a construction project, “this is a bit more amorphous,” Gaines said.

“A lot of what they do may be more on the political front,” Gaines said. “If they need to go to a senator’s office for a meeting (for example).”

Moreover, Perry had been under the impression that the company wouldn’t necessarily bill the entirety of the base fee of $4,000 every month.

But Kooman and board member Jesse Ickes suggested it was better — and probably safe — to assume that the company would bill the full amount per the contract.

The authority can terminate the deal with 30 days notice at any time, Gaines said.

The authority will provide the company with its capital project list, along with the relative priority it places on each item, according to Perry.

It’s not a mere “wish list,” he said, in response to concern from Ickes.

HVAC upgrade

The authority will pay a contractor $670,000 to renovate the HVAC system at the administration building on Chestnut Avenue.

That amount is $280,000 less than what the authority budgeted and $730,000 less than the highest estimate for the project — although the authority has spent $51,000 on engineering, according to field operations coordinator Bill Calvert.

The system has been functioning poorly for years, Calvert said.

The basement unit is “dead,” while the first- and second-floor segments are “mediocre,” he said.

Work will start in June and take eight weeks, he estimated.

There will be some disruptions, and some employees may need to be relocated at times within the building, but it shouldn’t be necessary to find alternative locations off-site, according to officials.

Staff is accustomed to dealing with HVAC issues, Perry said.

The building has multiple portable air conditioners purchased to deal with those issues, as the system “goes out on the hottest weeks due to demand on the system” — and those portable units will help keep things cool during the summer upgrade, said Perry and Mike Bianconi, director of water operations.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.