MECHANICSBURG – A project aimed at rehabbing parts of three village streets will cost more than expected, village council learned on Monday.

Mayor Greg Kimball reported the village received two bids for the project to fix portions of Walnut Street, Park Avenue and Pleasant Street. Strawser Construction of Columbus bid $74,492 for the project, while Springfield-based A&B Asphalt submitted a bid of $76,495.

“John Grosse (village’s engineering consultant) at Stantec is working on bid calculations for us and will let us know when it will be awarded,” Kimball said. “(The bids) were a little bit higher than what we expected … so we will have to go back to the county to request some additional funds.”

Grosse had estimated the project, which will be paid through the village’s share of the county’s permissive tax, would cost $68,832.94. In April, Kimball informed council the village’s permissive tax account had a balance of $120,000.

EMS bill collections

During a recent meeting between several village officials and a representative from Medicount, which handles the village’s EMS billing, Kimball said, “There appears to be things that have fallen through the cracks, both here and there. We are working to get those resolved.”

Kimball stated the problem on the village’s end involves not getting the billing information in on time or in a consistent manner.

“We’ve been issuing the billing in batches, like every three months instead of once a week, which is delaying the whole process,” he said. “Some insurance companies require the billing to be in within 90 days or they don’t pay it, so if we wait 90 days before we submit the bill, it’s too late.

“I’m not sure how much we have lost on that. We might not have lost anything. I don’t know that for a fact. The fact they are going in late is a problem,” he added.

Kimball said the issue seems to have resulted from a misunderstanding between Medicount and Assistant Fire Chief/EMS Chief Steve Castle.

“Steve was under the impression that they wanted them in batches,” Kimball said. “He said he was told to send them in every 90 days.”

In hopes of resolving the issue, Kimball said, the village will submit EMS bills every week from here on out, and he expects to meet with Medicount later this year to make sure everything is squared away.

“I think there are some problems at Medicount’s end that they are looking at,” he said.

In other business:

•Zoning Officer Dusty Hurst informed council that the Mechanicsburg Board of Zoning Appeals recently approved a variance allowing the Mechanicsburg Baptist Church, 112 W. Sandusky St., to put in a parking lot on nearby church property.

•Fiscal Officer Dan Eck announced the village’s three-year audit (2012-2014), which began in early April, is in the final review process.

•Hydrant flushing will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday.