Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The City Council on Sept. 12 awarded a contract for the construction of a raw water intake at Foster Dam to supply Sweet Home’s drinking water.
The low bidder, Pacific Excavation, Inc., agreed to construct the intake structure for $1.7 million.
This will be the first step in the construction of a new water treatment plant, that will cost an estimated total of $5 million.
The city is planning to replace a treatment plant that has been in use since the 1930s. Drinking water standards changed, and the city has failed to meet the minimum requirement for chlorine contact time after filtration and, according to city officials, the existing plant cannot be upgraded to meet the requirement.
In late 1998, Public Works Director Mike Adams said, the city received a notice of violation from the Oregon Health Division, prompting the city to begin plans to build a new treatment plant. While in violation, the city must mail notices to its water customers each quarter warning them that the city’s water does not meet standards.
The city is planning to build the new plant just west of Wiley Creek on five acres of land provided by the Santiam River Development Company. In exchange, Santiam River Development will be able to use all of the city’s water rights, the untreated water, not used to supply the city’s water utility.
Santiam River Development plans to use the water to keep the development’s water features full. Santiam River Development is constructing a series of upper-end housing developments along with a lodge, club, hotels and a restaurant.
In July, the city formally requested bids for the installation of a 42-inch high-capacity water intake screen with an air wash system and construction of 600 feet of 24-inch ductile iron water transmission line above ground, with 4,600 feet of buried 30-inch transmission line leading from the dam to the new plant.
Five contractors bid on the project, including Pacific Excavation of Springfield, $1.7 million; R&G Excavating, Inc., of Scio, $1.8 million; James W. Fowler Co. of Dallas, $1.988 million; THG Construction, LLC, of Hermiston, $1.993 million; and Emery and Sons Construction, Inc., of Stayton, $2.1 million. The city’s engineering estimate was $2 million.
The project is scheduled to begin in February with the placement of the screen between February and Memorial Day while the reservoir is lowest, Adams said. The transmission line will cross Wiley Creek between mid-July and September, and the project should be completed by the end of 2007.
Present at the Sept. 12 meeting were Mayor Craig Fentiman and councilmen Bob McIntire, Jim Gourley, Tim McQueary, Dick Hill, Rich Rowley and Jim Bean.
In other business, the council:
– Appointed Byron Wolfsong as the city’s code enforcement officer.
– Approved the sale of a city-owned residential lot on the corner of Tamarack Street and 12th Avenue for $18,000.
– Held the second reading of an ordinance to vacate an undeveloped portion of 10th Avenue north of Juniper Street and south of the Sweet Home Fire Hall. The third and final reading of the ordinance will be held on Sept. 28 when the council will make a decision.