The Smithville Aldermen Monday night 5 to 0 to hire J.R. Wauford & Company Consulting Engineers, Inc. of Lebanon for the design phase of the rehabilitation of the Water Treatment Plant and the raw water intake location at the lake.
The cost for the design phase is $140,000.
Greg Davenport, Consulting Engineer for the Wauford Company, addressed the mayor and aldermen with some revised cost estimates. In the initial preliminary engineering report released in January 2008, the rehab project was estimated at $1.4 million. Davenport said Monday night that if new pumps and motors are needed at both the raw water intake facility and the water treatment plant, then the total project costs could be $2.8 million. “Basically what I was tasked with is taking the recommendations of replacing all the pumps at the raw water intake, which transports the water from the lake to the plant and replacing all of the high service pumps which transport the treated water from the plant into town. I revised the engineering report and I revised the cost estimates.”
“During the discussion of the last meeting, it was decided to go ahead and price in new pumps and motors with the consideration that during the design phase, there’s a possibility of re-using some of the existing facilities. After more thought about this, I think maybe an appropriate action would be to buy one new pump and motor for the raw water intake and one new pump and motor for the high service pumps (water plant) and then take the other three that you pull out and re-condition them into maybe two good pumps and motors. That would save quite a bit over replacing all the pumps and motors, but you can’t tell, all three may need replacing. It’s hard to say at this point.’
” At the last meeting, we were looking at a figure of $1.4 million to renovate the water plant. I solicited information from pump vendors to get the actual costs of these. I also solicited costs on the valve systems that would be necessary at each location, considering that the 30 year old valve systems may also need to be replaced. I then multiplied them by an appropriate factor for what a bid cost might be to install these. I did quite a bit of research on trying to get you a decent number.”
“Renovating the raw water facilities is going to add about $550,000 to the project costs and replacing the high service pumps, valves, and using variable frequency drives, which is something that’s been kicked around but is not absolutely necessary per se, is adding approximately $600,000 to the project costs. So right there you’ve got $1.15 million added to it and by the time you consider all the other work that was proposed, the new total estimated project costs, including engineering, administrative, environmental, and a $50,000 project contingency, is $2.8 million. What I’m saying to you is I think that’s the high number. We may be able to do things differently to save Smithville some money and get a cheaper bid cost than that
Davenport says efforts will be made to save the city money where possible with in-house repairs. “The first thing I would want to do, since this report has already been prepared, is to submit it to the Division of Water Supply and say ‘we are asking for your approval and these are our plans.’ We would then design the improvements. That would probably take at least 90 days. We can determine during the design phase what items can be fixed in-house versus what you will need a general contractor to take care of. You can increase the reliability of what you have. I would propose that we have a project kick-off meeting with whoever wants to attend and then sit down and talk about all the minor things that need to be done. The next step would be to assess those big ticket items and see what can be done to them. If they need to be junked, they need to be junked. But we will not make that decision for you. We’ll present the facts and say, for example, this is what we think it will cost to fix it and in our opinion you should buy a new one because it’s only 20% more. That would be the best thing for Smithville in this case. We could even help solicit two different estimates from two different firms on the repairs. You could then bring it before the board and make a decision as to whether or not you wanted to pursue it at that point or lump it into the big project.”
The aldermen voted earlier this month to appropriate $1.4 million from almost $4 million in water and sewer fund reserves to make renovations to the water treatment plant. The money will be set aside during the 2009-2010 fiscal year, which begins July 1st.
The city recently voted to apply for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant to help fund the water plant rehab project
The original total estimated project cost of $1.4 million dollars breaks down as follows:
Renovate Filters with New Underdrains and Media- $250,000
Blower and accessories for Air Scour- $40,000
New 40 HP Backwash Pump, Rebuild Existing Pump for Standby- $90,000
Convert Filter Instrumentation including Water System Telemetry- $300,000
Modifications to Existing 1967 Clearwell- $10,000
New Chemical Bulk Storage and Containment- $60,000
Electrical Work- $200,000
New Standby Generator at Intake and at Plant- $200,000
Engineering: Design- $95,000
Construction Administration and Observation- $80,000
Administrative- $23,500
Environmental- $1,500
Project Contingencies- $50,000
In other business Monday night, the aldermen adopted on second and final reading an ordinance to rezone property that may soon become the location for an apartment complex for low-income grandparents raising a grandchild.
The two acre site, owned by Bruce Medley and David Bryan , is located at 721 Bright Hill Road and to the rear of Fiddler’s Manor and other property owners on Walker Drive.
The proposed Fiddlers Manor Annex would actually be situated on 1.76 acres of the property.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded a $1.67 million grant to build eight apartments in Smithville for low-income grandparents who are raising a grandchild.
The grant was awarded to the Upper Cumberland Development District (UCDD) as part of HUD’s Demonstration Program for Elderly Housing for Intergenerational Families.
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