A stagnate economy with contractors scrambling for work caused Houston’s lowest wastewater treatment bid to drop $800,000 below projections. The news came Monday when Houston city government opened the bids on the estimated $4 million project.
The lowest bidder’s estimate makes the total outlay about $3.2 million. Anticipating a favorable bid, the city included several other measures in the project that are expected to make the new plant run more efficiently.
“These prices are really good,” Ray West of the Springfield engineering firm, Hood-Rich, told the six-member council and mayor Monday night.
Much of the money for the project comes from the federal government’s stimulus package. Roughly half of the cost comes from a grant; the balance is a low-interest loan. Because of the low bid, the city will turn down a $500,000 rural sewer grant it was scheduled to receive. Bids had to exceed $3.5 million for eligibility. Another community in the state will receive it.
The city may also revisit the issue of sewer rates, where a favorable analysis could translate into good news for ratepayers.
McClanahan Construction, a Rogersville firm that spans two generations and 42 years, is the apparent low bidder at about $2.67 million. The council also accepted a bid for $116,970 for a specialized truck that is used at sewer plants. The balance of the cost represents expenses ranging from engineering, testing and contingencies, which were added in case something unforeseen surfaces on the project, which is expected to take about one year to construct.
A company representative told City Administrator Larry Sutton that she was so overcome by the firm’s low bid and its ability now to keep the firm’s employees together that she sat in her vehicle in the parking lot and cried.
Six firms submitted bids; 16-17
reviewed plans, West said.
“The bad economy really worked in your favor,” West told the council.
The city was so optimistic that bids would come in favorable that it took steps to add several features to the plan that it could not otherwise afford:
-Specialized mechanical equipment that will result in a more efficient operation at the sewer plant.
-Removal of nearly two foot of sludge from a lagoon that will be transformed into a holding area for surplus water.
-Work to improve utility lines near the plant, which will be constructed just north of the existing site.
So what is next? West told the council he would move quickly to transmit documentation to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in Jefferson City. He anticipates a mid-August closing on the low-interest federal money. A notice to proceed on the project could come in early to mid-September, he said.
Houston’s original plant, constructed in the 1970s, is considered outdated and likely not to meet new stringent wastewater standards. Last year, voters approved measures related to bonds and rates to help finance the issue – if necessary.