Smithville Water Plant Renovation to Begin by August

It may be August before any significant work begins on the renovation of the Smithville Water Treatment Plant.
Mayor Taft Hendrixson updated the aldermen on the project during Monday night’s city council meeting. “We had a pre-construction conference with W & O Construction last Tuesday. Of course they were awarded the bid on the water plant and they have been given notice to proceed. They will be doing some things down there in the electrical work, probably maybe pouring a concrete pad for a generator, but the majority of the work is probably not going to start until August. They have ordered all the pumps and there’s about a ten or twelve week lead time on all this equipment. They will be doing some things down there but the major part won’t start until about August. It was stressed to them highly that the water producing had to go on so there won’t be any foreseen interruptions in water producing. The engineer is confident they will do a good job. The engineering firm works with them good and they were the low bidder. So like I said they will be doing some things down there but the majority of the work probably won’t start until around August.”
The Smithville Board of Aldermen, on February 1st, approved a resolution awarding the construction bid to W&O Construction Company of Livingston in the amount of $2,542,000. The actual costs will be more when taking into consideration fees for engineering and other related services. The city will receive a $500,000 community development block grant administered by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to help fund the project. But the bulk of the funding, $2,342,000 will have to be appropriated from the city’s water and sewer fund.
Mayor Hendrixson said last month that the city would not have to borrow the money. There are sufficient funds in the city’s water and sewer fund reserves to support the project.
The project entails modernizing the water treatment plant and making improvements to the raw water intake. Mayor Hendrixson says W &O Construction has 365 days to complete the project and service to customers will not be interrupted while the renovation is underway.
In other business, the aldermen voted to accept bids for the airport hay contract. The current two year contract expires in April.
Mayor Hendrixson said the city has been asked to make a donation to Project Graduation. The aldermen voted to contribute $500. This is the same amount that the city has donated in the past.
Alderman Shawn Jacobs mentioned that some citizens have raised safety concerns about an intersection near the public square. “It has been brought to my attention by some citizens that the intersection of Webb Street and South Third Street by the dentist office and across from the Foutch residence. I understand that there have been quite a number of accidents at that location. It was suggested by the people who brought it up to me that a four way stop be put there. Personally, I hate four way stops. I think they probably cause more accidents than they solve but I thought we might want to discuss it and ask Lieutenant Leffew or his department to maybe take a look at the statistics of the number of wrecks we’ve had there and get a recommendation as far as public safety goes. I’m not sure what to do but I’ve heard discussions about that being a dangerous location because of the hill there, you can’t see and some cars pull out too far trying to see if anybody is coming up the hill.’
Lieutenant Leffew said he would gather some information and report back to the board.