The second Huntingburg City Council meeting for any-given month typically sees normal business, followed by department updates from both City Energy and Water Superintendants, but for this week’s meeting, it was a tri-fecta of official boards and councils. In attendance, as listed on the night’s agenda, is the Board of Public Works and Safety, The Utility Rate Advisory Board, and the Common Council, as they were all presented with the upcoming major city project: the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Eric Parsley, with Commonwealth Engineers, detailed the plans to upgrade the current Wastewater Treatment Facility to fit the expanding capacity that the City of Huntingburg is currently needing. Parsley assured all in attendance that not only is this upgrade necessary, now, of all times, because of safety and the general age of the facility, but also because the cost of materials is projected to only increase from this point on. Mayor Elkins also added the general claim that many other communities surrounding Huntingburg are going through the same Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrades now because they too are finding that capacity, age, and safety are of great concern.
Buzz Krohn, of O.W. Krohn and Associates, is the “financial liaison” for the city as they embark on this project, so that the City can apply for governmental and state funding to help reimburse the hefty overall costs for this endeaver. O.W. Krohn and Associates has been hard at work studying Wastewater consumer costs so that when the rate increase arrives on the monthly utility statement, it is in-line with what other municipality customers are also experiencing.
The Board of Public Works held a vote to present the construction bids and rate increases to the Huntingburg Common Council, to which there were five “yays”, zero “nays”. The vote of the Utility Rate Advisory Board was then held, to which three “yays” and one “nays” were recorded, and by the majority vote, the presentation of the following bid(s) approval was delivered to the Common Council, all in one evening:
Reynolds Construction, LLC of Orleans, IN submitted the bid for the renovation of the current Wastewater Treatment Plant site at $34,700,000.00, to which the council approved the introduction of this bid.
Cooper Contracting, formerly Cooper Rail Service Inc., of Huntingburg, IN submitted the bid for an addition to the aforementioned Wastewater Treatment Plant, that would expand treatment capacity resources. Their bid was listed at $3,591,533.00, and, again, approved by the Common Council.
The current total of these bids is set at a combined amount of: $38,291,533.00
The public hearing for the Wastewater Treatment Plant rennovations and additions is set for the next upcoming council meeting, on Tuesday, May 14th, starting at 5:30PM EST in the Huntingburg City Hall.
