The sewer subcommittee of the Shenango Valley Intergovernmental Study Committee is stymied on two fronts as it awaits the completion of legal negotiations.

The subcommittee is trying to shed a former consultant and hire a new one to complete its report for the full committee.

Officials fired L. Robert Kimball and Associates, Ebensburg, for failing to secure grant money, provide progress reports or gather information, but the company submitted to the city of Farrell -- the lead municipality in the study -- a $13,000 bill for work it said it has done.

While the committee believes the company is not owed any money, the state has expressed a willingness to pay Kimball something from a $65,000 grant it has set aside for the study, said subcommittee member Tom Tulip.

Subcommittee Chairman Joseph Augustine, a Hermitage commissioner, said Farrell solicitor Stephen Mirizio made a settlement offer to Kimball, and officials are waiting for the company to respond.

Tulip, director of the Mercer County office of the Pennsylvania Economy League and Farrell's economic recovery coordinator, said the figure was approved by the state, and probably Mirizio is the only other person to know what it is.

Meanwhile, the subcommittee received three proposals from firms that want to complete the study. Herbert, Rowland and Grubic Engineering and Related Services, Cranberry Township, Butler County, submitted the lowest figure, $45,265.

Augustine said the wording of the contract has not been agreed upon, and he hopes a meeting can be set up soon with the company and Mirizio to hash out final details.

Farrell council will have to approve the deal.

According to the contract, the study would take 90 days to complete.

While officials had initially wanted to study the possibility of combining the existing sewer facilities of Farrell, Sharon, Hermitage, Sharpsville and Wheatland, the state has said it will not approve dismantling the existing treatment plants and building a new one.

The study will focus on the administrative aspects of combining the sewer systems, while leaving the plants as they are.