Due to a rather unpleasant state— including leaks, cracks, and mold—the Westmoreland County Department of Social Services had to move from A.T. Johnson to another building.

On March 23, the Board authorized Interim County Administrator Donna Cogswell and County Attorney Richard Stuart to contract with Bay Restoration to perform remediation work on the A.T. Johnson building. This meant ironing out the details of the $216,583.36 con‑tract.

“Since that time, I’ve met with Bay Restoration representatives to discuss the project and expectations,” Cogswell stated. “We received a draft contract from Bay Restoration, and I initially reviewed and marked it up before send‑ing it to the County Attorney’s Office for legal review. I received comments from his office, implemented those revisions, and then forwarded it to Bay Restoration to let them know what the contract would look like.”

The changes, according to Cogswell, primarily dealt with ensuring that any modifications—whether weather‑re‑lated, financial, or project‑based— would have to come back to the Board of Supervisors for approval.

“The County Attorney’s Office noted that the initial proposal’s step‑by‑step process of what would happen through‑out mitigation was very detailed, and that we’d want to hold them to that as much as possible,” Cogswell continued.

It was then that Richard Stuart directed the Board’s attention to para‑graph 17 of the contract, which dealt with “binding arbitration.” He stated, “I’m not a big fan of arbitration, but I’m not opposed to it, and I want the Board to be aware that if there is something we can’t resolve, we will go to binding arbi‑tration rather than remediation.”

While the contract went back to Stuart’s office for a final review, funds were transferred from the capital projects budget and the Industrial Development Initiative to help pay for the work. Because it was an internal transfer, Board approval was not required—they simply needed to be informed of the action.

When the reviewed contract will be brought back for approval remains to be seen.