Allentown, Pa., has extended the deadline to respond to its request for bids to privatize its water and sewer utility system to noon Friday, March 29.
“This was done to allow bidders additional time to complete their financial due diligence,” said Mike Moore, the communications coordinator for Mayor Ed Pawlowski.
A “best and final offer” process among companies within 10% of one another, if the bids trigger it, would be completed Tuesday, according to Moore. The city can reject the offers if it likes none of them.
Bid had been scheduled for unsealing in Harrisburg on Thursday.
At stake is a 50-year lease, which Pawlowski hopes will generate $200 million to help Allentown lessen its unfunded liability for police and fire pensions.
“The city has a 500-pound gorilla on its back,” Pawlowski said of the pension obligation, calling it Allentown’s most important issue since he took office in 2006.
The Lehigh County Authority’s board of directors voted Tuesday to submit a last-minute offer. Allentown last summer had pre-qualified the nonprofit authority, which serves about 20,000 Lehigh Valley customers,
A team of Goldman Sachs, law firms McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC and Flamm Walton PC and engineering firm CH2MHill is advising the authority.
Other interested parties include Aqua Pennsylvania, American Water, NDC Housing, United Water and Allentown Forward.
The City Council must approve any deal. The council in January rejected a proposal to set a binding May referendum on the lease.
