Contracts for north and south pump stations officially approved in Jeffersonville

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January 3, 2013

Contracts for north and south pump stations officially approved in Jeffersonville

By BRADEN LAMMERS braden.lammers@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Thu Jan 03, 2013, 08:37 PM EST

JEFFERSONVILLE — Contracts for two pump stations in Jeffersonville were approved at the citys’ Sewer Board meeting Thursday and will be able to move forward.

Construction administration and inspection agreements were approved for the Lentzier Creek pump station — south pump station — which includes the interceptor pipe and a force main project and the Liters pump station — north pump station — projects.

The construction contracts for the same projects, which had been previously approved, were also signed at Thursday’s meeting.

The two projects were divided into four sections, with the first three sections related to the Lentzier Creek project. Jacobi, Toombs and Lanz Inc. will work as the inspectors on the first section with MAC Construction and Excavating building the project at a total of $5.7 million. Section two inspection will be completed by Clark Dietz Inc. and Excel Excavating Inc. will complete construction at a total of $1.98 million. The third section will be inspected by American Structurepoint and constructed by Dan Cristiani Excavating, Inc. at a total of $744,851.

The Liters force main project will be inspected by Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates, Inc. with Lykins Contracting Inc. completing construction at a total of $1.54 million.

New billing system approved

Jeffersonville’s sewer board also approved a contract for a new utility billing system.

Out of three proposals offered, which was subsequently narrowed to two possibilities for a financial and utility billing software, the sewer board approved a proposal with BS&A Software.

City Controller Monica Harmon said the total cost to replace the existing system, including hardware, software and consulting fees totals $605,400. Costs for the sewer board totaled $74,600, with $23,700 expected to come from the city’s drainage board and the remainder — $507,100 — to be paid for by the City Council.

The sewer board approved the contract for the new system 2-0, with Board Member Dale Orem not in attendance, contingent upon the drainage board and city council approving their portions of the cost.

Required connection

Several residents required to connect to city sewers in the Steeplechase neighborhood have yet to do so and may be forced to connect through legal action taken by the city.

Jeffersonville Wastewater Superintendent Len Ashack said residents were sent letters in October stating they have not requested a permit from the sewer billing office to connect to the city sewer system, which they are required to do.

Board Member Bill Saegesser asked if legal action was the next step for the board to take as it had already sent out the certified letters.

“The statute does allow a lawsuit to make them connect and pay for all of the costs for that,” said Sewer Board Attorney Scott Lewis. “It has to be a decision from the board to allow a formal vote to a lawsuit being filed.”

The sewer board voted unanimously to authorize legal action to force the residents to hook up to the sewers.