Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006

Oskaloosa to start process on sewer line improvements

by Kenneth Lassiter

The financial scope of citywide sewer improvements starts on the low end from $1.4 million, Oskaloosa city council members found out Oct. 12.

The council met with Brian Kingsley of BG Consultants, which is the city’s contracted engineering firm, to discuss the sewer work as well as the city hall project.

Council members have been focusing on the sewer work in recent meetings after city maintenance superintendent Bill Heard pointed out some critical areas that need work in the Swoyer’s Addition area near the city park.

Discussion on that work evolved to where a large-scale project to rehabilitate and replace the city sewer system is being considered. Kingsley said the issue comes down to spending a great deal of money each year on maintenance issues or spending it on debt relief to pay off a larger project that has a more positive effect on the system.

“It’s basically wrestling with the issue of $50,000 to $100,000 a year for maintenance versus $50,000 to $100,000 a year on a debt payment that will help you address a lot more at one time,” Kingsley said.

Kingsley gave each council member a map and cost sheet developed after smoke testing on the system was done in 2002. There is nearly 47,000 feet of sanitary sewer line in the city of Oskaloosa and Kingsley said the next step of video inspection of the lines would likely cost between $51,000 and $58,000.

He said smoke testing revealed problem areas but didn’t reveal all the problems like TV inspection of the lines would. He added that doing the TV inspection of the lines would be a key component in developing an adequate proposal to get the city grant and loan money from Community Development Block Grants, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment low-interest loan program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development loan programs.

Kingsley pointed out in 2002 the project to rehabilitate and replace lines was projected at $1.4 million, which would likely have grown to $1.5 million by now. He pointed out TV inspection would reveal more problems that could double or triple the cost of the project.

While TV inspection is the next step for the city, Kingsley said BG would need to start developing a preliminary engineering report on the system that would also be used in procuring grant and loan money toward the project.

He used a book-sized report done recently for the city of Osawatomie as an example. Once the inspection is done and the report is generated, the city would then meet with the various organizations to discuss grant and loan money and move through the application process.

Kingsley said having some of the engineering design work done by that point would also be helpful in getting grant and loan funding. City Attorney Jan Hayes asked for a ballpark engineering cost and Kingsley stated it to be about $25,000, but he said with the smoke testing already having pointed out some problem areas, that figure could drop as low as $10,000 in preparation for the project.

Council members have discussed doing the repair work in phases, but Kingsley said a full project should be planned at first.

“The most efficient way to do it is all at once,” said Kingsley of preparing for the project and presenting it to governmental agencies for funding help.

“The goal is to do it all at once but we may end up breaking it into phases. Until we get the project quantified, we won’t know.”

Kingsley said some areas would need replacement while other areas could be “sliplined” to rehabilitate lines. This involves running a compacted line through the existing line and expanding it into a solid pipe before removing the old pipe from outside the new one.

He said usually between 20 and 40 percent of the lines identified for replacement can be sliplined.

Council member Allen Wise said the city needs new sewer lines as much of the city’s system is in old-fashioned clay lines that have reached the time to be replaced. Council members asked if KDHE funds could be used to do the preliminary work on the project, including engineering costs and TV inspection costs.

Kingsley said those costs should qualify for KDHE low-interest loan funds. After some more discussion on the project, council members voted, 4-0, to prepare an application for the KDHE loan funds to cover the costs of TV inspection of the sewer lines, engineering costs and emergency work on the critical area outlined by Heard in Swoyer’s Addition.

Council member Lisa Cross wasn’t present at the meeting to discuss the matter.

Discussion then turned to the new city hall project and Kingsley asked where council members would like to place the advertisement for bids. Several area newspapers were discussed before council members settled on the Independent and Vindicator for publication.

They plan to make a list of contractors for the advertisement to be sent to and will consider other options for getting the word out about bids for the project. The bids are tentatively due Nov. 16.

In other business Oct. 12, the council:

• Accepted a liquor license renewal for Stinky’s on the south side of the square pending state approval and the go-ahead from city police chief Rick Jones.

•The council will next meet at 7 p.m. Nov. 2 at the fire station at 508 Jefferson.