Judge rejects challenge to $18 million city contract

6/3/2005

The owner of a Toledo engineering firm failed yesterday to persuade a Lucas County Common Pleas Court judge to rescind a city contract to design an $18 million project to convert methane gas to electricity.

Judge Jack Zouhary denied a request for a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed last week by James Opaczewski, whose firm, Turbo Dynamics, lost the contract to another company. The project would pipe the naturally occurring gas from the Hoffman Road landfill to the Bay View wastewater treatment plant, where it would fuel gas turbines to produce electricity.

Mr. Opaczewski's lawsuit claimed the city wrongly awarded the engineering and design contract for the project to Cleveland-based Middough Consulting.

Middough's $1.8 million bid was approved by council in January. It was the lowest of six proposals submitted for the design and technology phase of the project.

A bid of $2.1 million submitted by Poggemeyer Design Group of Bowling Green would have used the technology of Turbo Dynamics.