Jeffersonville 10th Street pump station to be completed by end of month

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August 18, 2012

Jeffersonville 10th Street pump station to be completed by end of month

Sewer billing being investigated

By BRADEN LAMMERS braden.lammers@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Sat Aug 18, 2012, 10:15 AM EDT

JEFFERSONVILLE — The 10th Street pump station will be completed by the end of the month.

An update on the project that is wrapping up was provided to the Jeffersonville Sanitary Sewer Board Thursday, but one question about the project still lingered. A chain-link fence that will surround the pump station was previously questioned by Mayor Mike Moore, because of its aesthetic at a main entrance to the city. The pump station is located at the corner of 10th and Spring streets, just off Interstate 65.

Jeffersonville Wastewater Superintendent Len Ashack said the contractor had agreed to add slats to the chain-link fence for $19,500. In addition, landscaping would be added to help camouflage the fence.

But Moore’s concerns of how the fencing would look persisted.

“You’re talking about the entrance to our city here,” he said.

Sewer Board Member Bill Saegesser agreed and said, “that’s our front door, it always will be our front door.”

While Ashack said he understood the problem, there were limits as to what the city can do to beautify the property.

“There isn’t a whole lot of room for us to do anything,” he said. “We can change it from a chain-link to a solid fence ... but we’ve got to keep people out of there.”

Ashack explained that there is a limited amount of space near the pump station because of its proximity to I-65 and land being purchased to complete the expansion of the Ohio River Bridges project, which will add lanes to I-65 with the addition of a new northbound bridge in the downtown corridor.

And land toward the intersection of 10th and Spring streets is not owned by the city.

Ashack said the city sold a portion of property at the corner of 10th and Spring that abuts the pump station to Clark Memorial Hospital. He suggested the city could buy that property back to help beautify the area surrounding the pump station.

“We’ve got some [money] that we can spend on buying land for long-term [stormwater] control plan land acquisition,” he said.

Ashack suggested going with the chain-link fence in the short-term and allow the city to revisit the issue once the contractor has completed the work on-site.

Sewer Board Attorney Scott Lewis agreed and said that some sort of fencing is necessary.

“As far as the meantime, for liability purposes, we’ve got to get a fence around [the pump station],” he said.

SEWER BILLING

Once again, the summer sewer relief adjustments were at issue during Thursday’s meeting.

Sewer Board Member Dale Orem made a motion to approve all of the adjustments, except for the summer relief adjustments, because he said Ashack wanted to further look into the claims.

“They’ll get the adjustments,” Ashack said of those who applied for summer relief. “They’re just not approved.”

He said some of the summer relief adjustments did not have names on the waivers and he needed to get more information. If necessary, adjustments will be made to future bills.

Ashack said the sewer billing office is trying to revamp the billing list and is investigating a new billing system because of difficulties with the current software that is being used.

“We’re not getting all of the revenue the city deserves, which is putting a bind on us,” he said.

Jeffersonville Controller Monica Harmon said a request-for-proposal is being drafted for new software for a new billing program which will likely be sent out next week.

“I don’t expect that we will see any product demonstrations until the end of September, at best,” she said.

She added it would be likely that if and when a new program is chosen, it won’t be implemented until the first of the year, but the new software and billing would still be run in-house.

CONTRACT WORK

Jorge Lanz, president of Jacobi, Toombs and Lanz Inc. recommended that the board accept the low bid from New Albany-based MAC Construction at a price of $365,425 for the Middle Road sewer project, despite being more than the engineers’ estimate.

He explained the difference between the engineer’s estimate and MAC’s bid was a $20,000 in the mold and demold for the main lanes of traffic, as well as working around a fiber optic line the contractor will have to work around.

The contract was unanimously approved.

Lanz also requested an increase in the not-to-exceed contract amount by $35,000 Crums Lane interceptor project. He said he anticipates the board being able to recover damages on the project, but in the meantime engineers needed to be on-site to manage the project.

Extension of sewer service along Utica Pike is expected to have its bid opening at the sewer board’s next meeting Sept. 6.