A design contract for the city’s planned wastewater treatment plant was amended Tuesday night, adding $228,918 to the city’s contract with Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc.
According to Mark Westenskow, the city’s public works director, the contract was originally planned to be amended in December after the city rejected bids for construction of the plant.
“We discovered that current world conditions, supply chain and the like are not kind to our project,” Westenskow said.
Westenskow said the city plans to redo the bids, but with a design package for the project that would reign in costs and streamline the build.
“What I’m looking to do is ... make a tighter project. Not that I want to cut things out of it necessarily or make it less, but I want to tighten it down and see if we can’t make it easier for our contractors to bid,” he said.
Completing the wastewater treatment plant has been a longtime goal for the city as its current system has outlived its lifespan. Discussions about a new treatment center for the city date back to 2014 when concerns about future EPA regulations targeting discharges into the Green River would impact the city. The lagoon system was originally built in 1962, with the last improvements to the sewer lagoons being completed in 1989. Among the issues facing the aging plant is the parts used to maintain the current wastewater treatment are not manufactured anymore, requiring replacement parts to be custom built. In 2017, Finance Director Chris Meats issued a warning to the Council about the state of its wastewater treatment facility.
“The current wastewater lagoon headworks is shot,” he told the council. “It needs replaced today.”
The city received two State Clean Water Revolving Fund Loans to help cover the cost of the project. One loan for $2.4 million was applied solely to the design phase of the project while another $27.6 million was received to help with construction costs.
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