Wednesday’s Butler County commissioners meeting will reconvene next Wednesday to address a $952,000 funding shortfall in the water and sewer system replacement project at the Allegheny-Clarion Valley Business Park in Allegheny Township.

Chairwoman Leslie Osche said commissioners will reconvene at 10 a.m. Feb. 5 in hopes that business park property owners will agree to ante up to fill the void in funding.

In the meantime, solicitor Julie Graham said contractors who submitted bids for the project will be asked to extend the bids for 60 days. She said those bids were opened Dec. 9 and will expire on Feb. 7 unless they are extended.

The commissioners tabled those bids after they came in about $1.2 million over budget and ordered a review to look for cost savings.

The commissioners tabled other bids, which were opened last week, for the sewer electrical system.

The county has committed $5.7 million from American Rescue Plan Act funds and grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission and the state to the project, but it remains under funded.

Business park landowners are considering options for raising the additional money, Osche said.

There are options for filling the funding gap, said Joe Saeler, Butler County Community Development Corporation executive director.

The options include having park business owners pay an up-front fee based on gallons of water used per year or having the county borrow money, Saeler said.

Commissioner Kevin Boozel made a motion to award the contracts contingent on securing the $952,000, but the motion died for lack of a second.

Commissioner Kim Geyer suggested having an engineer review the bid specifications and the county could then re-advertise for bids with new specifications. She said new bids could reduce or increase the funding gap and it is a risk worth taking.

Saeler said the park’s water and sewer systems are operating under a consent order from the Department of Environmental Protection, which will issue fines if problems with the system are not addressed.

The problem facing the park is financial, he said. The park charges for water and sewer service and is “breaking even” with its revenue and expenses, but does not have enough money for improvements, he said.

Graham said the $931,000 state H2O grant, which is part of the project funding, expires in June.

The county is in “clean up mode” because the water and sewer system has been poorly managed over the years, Osche said.

She said after the system is replaced, it must be expanded in the future to accommodate additional businesses.

There is undeveloped land in the park, said Mark Gordon, county chief of economic development and planning. The undeveloped land is owned by the Allegheny-Clarion Valley Development Corporation and businesses in the park own the land where their buildings are, he said. The corporation owns and operates the water and sewer system, he added.

Expanding the system is the only way for the park to raise capital, but the DEP won’t permit an expansion until existing problems are corrected, Saeler said.

“You’ve got fix what’s broken and then they’ll let me expand,” Saeler said.

He said the corporation and the eight businesses in the park should form an association to maintain the system. Ownership of the park will eventually be turned over to the township, he said.

Osche said the commissioners want to protect the jobs at the park.