ZELIENOPLE — Borough council voted unanimously Tuesday, Jan. 29 to join a cooperative local government effort to bid on street paving projects.

Zelienople will join members of the Southwestern Butler Council of Governments comprised of Lancaster and Jackson townships and Harmony to jointly bid on street paving projects in an effort to save on cost.

“We’re going to put our bid through the COG and the COG will essentially award the bid for us in hopes of getting a better price,” said borough manager Andrew Spencer.

Council member Doug Foyle said this style of joint bidding is a logical process that allows local municipalities to work together.

“We’re neighbors and the projects are so similar in many cases and the vendors are the same,” Foyle said.

Council president Mary Hess said the idea to bid with local municipalities came from a state Department of Transportation meeting she attended earlier in the month.

“It’s been very very successful in Mercer County,” Hess said. “They have doing it for years … The fact that we’ve taken this step is looked upon in a really positive way.”

Hess said that the borough has the potential to save one-third of the cost and could qualify for additional federal and state grant funds.

“Not only could we be getting a good price on the paving materials,” Hess said. “But it benefited Mercer County by getting them grant money from the state and federal government.”

Each municipality will submit their intended projects to the Jackson Township solicitor, who will submit the proposals to different companies in March.

“We will be doing our individual work,” Hess said. “We’ll be in charge of paying our own and managing the projects.”

According to Spencer, the borough does have a right to not use the estimates from the bidding sessions if the prices are too high.

“If the totals come back very bad, we would pull it back and say ‘we’re not doing this,’” Hess said.