City takes another step forward in water filtration plant project
NORWICH – Now, more than five years after the City of Norwich first proposed a new water filtration plant to replace the 108-year-old facility currently in use on Rexford Street, the Common Council has passed a resolution to create a new line for the project on the city’s budget sheet, and a contract with an Oneonta-based engineering firm to complete the work.
The city put the project out to bid earlier this year and for the past few months, officials have reviewed several proposals for the water filtration project. Having received four qualified responses to the city’s requests for qualifications, Delaware Engineering P.C. of Oneonta was chosen to carry out the project at a cost of $749,000, pending funding from the United States Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (USDA-RD). Including all costs, the overall bill for the project is an estimated $6.1 million.
“Our next step is to file an application with the USDA-RD by August 31, 2013,” explained Superintendent of Public Works Carl Ivarson. The entire project from here on out rides on the back of that funding application, he added. It will be the deciding factor for whether or not the project comes to fruition in the foreseeable future.
“Funding from the USDA-RD is incredibly important,” Ivarson said. “If we don’t get funding from them, the project doesn’t move forward.”
Since 2011, the City Finance Department and Department of Public Works, in collaboration with project engineers, have worked to lower the overall price of the new filtration plant, originally proposed as a $9.4 million project. Last May, the USDA-RD requested that the project be less than $5 million because federal budget cuts meant the original concept was more than what the USDA-RD could fund.
The project has undergone several changes to lower costs over the last year. Proposed alterations to the facility include the elimination of a central heating system, reducing its size from 5,000 square feet to 3,900, making use of a pre-engineered building in lieu of a masonry building, and eliminating replacement of a water storage tank on Wheeler Avenue. All in all, the changes could ultimately shave more than $3 million from initial price tag while still retaining the plant’s capacity for the USDA-mandated 1.9 million gallons of water per day.
According to Ivarson, the city has been working toward replacement of the water filtration plant for the past 15 years, beginning with replacement of the city’s deteriorating water and sewer lines, most of which are as old as the plant itself.
The city is currently organizing finances to pay for the project using the newly-appropriated Water Filtration Project line in the Capital Projects Fund. If funding applications are approved by the USDA-RD, most of the project will be reimbursed through federal grants from the USDA.
The city put the project out to bid earlier this year and for the past few months, officials have reviewed several proposals for the water filtration project. Having received four qualified responses to the city’s requests for qualifications, Delaware Engineering P.C. of Oneonta was chosen to carry out the project at a cost of $749,000, pending funding from the United States Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (USDA-RD). Including all costs, the overall bill for the project is an estimated $6.1 million.
“Our next step is to file an application with the USDA-RD by August 31, 2013,” explained Superintendent of Public Works Carl Ivarson. The entire project from here on out rides on the back of that funding application, he added. It will be the deciding factor for whether or not the project comes to fruition in the foreseeable future.
“Funding from the USDA-RD is incredibly important,” Ivarson said. “If we don’t get funding from them, the project doesn’t move forward.”
Since 2011, the City Finance Department and Department of Public Works, in collaboration with project engineers, have worked to lower the overall price of the new filtration plant, originally proposed as a $9.4 million project. Last May, the USDA-RD requested that the project be less than $5 million because federal budget cuts meant the original concept was more than what the USDA-RD could fund.
The project has undergone several changes to lower costs over the last year. Proposed alterations to the facility include the elimination of a central heating system, reducing its size from 5,000 square feet to 3,900, making use of a pre-engineered building in lieu of a masonry building, and eliminating replacement of a water storage tank on Wheeler Avenue. All in all, the changes could ultimately shave more than $3 million from initial price tag while still retaining the plant’s capacity for the USDA-mandated 1.9 million gallons of water per day.
According to Ivarson, the city has been working toward replacement of the water filtration plant for the past 15 years, beginning with replacement of the city’s deteriorating water and sewer lines, most of which are as old as the plant itself.
The city is currently organizing finances to pay for the project using the newly-appropriated Water Filtration Project line in the Capital Projects Fund. If funding applications are approved by the USDA-RD, most of the project will be reimbursed through federal grants from the USDA.
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