Council awards $300,000 sanitary sewer lining contract to Black Hawk County construction company

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

A $300,000 bid to line approximately 9,700 lineal feet of sanitary sewer was awarded to Municipal Pipe Tool Co. out of Hudson on Monday after Charles City Council members approved the contract and bond to do the work.

“What we’re doing is taking care of the sewer lines underneath the streets that we’re overlaying this year, as well as next year’s U.S. Highway 18 project,” said City Engineer John Fallis.

The city received five bids to perform the work. Hydro-Klean out of Des Moines was second-lowest bid at almost $325,000.

Fallis said work will be done on South Jackson (Fourth Street to Gilbert Street), Clinton (Ninth Street to Second Street) and Cedar Streets (Ninth Street to Gilbert Street) in mid-June.

The sanitary sewer construction will be done prior to this year’s hot mix asphalt work on those streets this fall. The bid also includes sewer work done on the U.S. Highway 18 (Clark Street to J Street) this autumn as well. That work precedes the Iowa Department of Transportation’s $3.3 million asphalt paving project scheduled to be done on Highway 18 in 2021.

Fallis said there was one minor addendum during the bidding process where 19 separate videos of sewer lines were sent out via links so contractors could look at those conditions of the lines before bidding.

The sewer lines will be rehabilitated with a cured-in-place lining process that essentially creates a new pipe inside an existing one.

Also Monday, the resolution was approved for an agreement with the city and Croell Redi-Mix in construction of a new cement storage building in the SW Bypass Urban Renewal area.

Croell has spent approximately $2 million in capital improvements on the new building. The base value of the property is $614,000. The agreement is for a tax rebate not to exceed $225,000. It is anticipated that approximately $45,000 in taxes will be rebated annually, with the exception of the first year. The plan is based on a five-year, 85% rebate.

The council also agreed to hire an Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities field training safety coordinator through a shared agreement among nine entities of the North Iowa Safety Alliance, including Charles City.

Charles City’s cost share is approximately $27,000 and the position would be hired at an annual salary of $110,000.

“They’ll help out with localized training as well as record keeping and management to make sure all the safety work is being documented as it should be on a regular basis,” said City Administrator Steve Diers. “It doesn’t really include the Police Department or Fire Department. Their training gets a bit more specialized. This will be mainly for public works and maybe some front office staff.”

A resolution was passed to sell the Charles City Police Department’s K-9 narcotics dog, Jordy, to Tree Town Kennel for $1. The agreement includes additional training for Jordy and in turn the CCPD can purchase another narcotics K-9 for a reduced cost of $5,000 should the department choose to do so.

Police Chief Hugh Anderson said Jordy had been involved in two incidents that prompted the Police Department to give up the animal.

A three-way split to help pay for a local match of $300,000 to build a $3 million taxiway at the Northeast Iowa Regional Airport was approved by the city, pending Floyd County’s involvement in helping out the North Cedar Aviation Authority get the project done.

“We have a taxiway that’s getting a little long in the tooth,” said Diers. “I generally talked with the county. They’re going to be meeting this week talking about this as well. It sounds like they’re all supportive of doing the 3-way split themselves.

The Federal Aviation Authority will cover 90 percent or $2.7 million of the total expense of the undertaking. That leaves $300,000 remaining, of which $250,000 would be accounted for if a 10-year loan with the airport and Heartland Energy is approved among parties.

The city, county and airport would pay roughly $16,000 each to go toward the remaining $50,000 of the funding. Payment on the $50,000 is not due until Fiscal Year 2021, according to Diers. That same split would include each aforementioned entity to pay an amount of $9,500 a year to cover the interest on the loan.

The city approved a quote from Baker Concrete and Excavating to move 7,000 cubic yards of fill dirt from the College Grounds on Clark Street.

Baker moved the dirt from the future site of the Charles City School District’s new athletic complex. The school district allowed the city to have some of the dirt free of charge.

The dirt will help create equalization basins and reed beds at the new $17 million water resource recovery facility that is located just a few blocks south at Shaw Avenue.

The quote was for $24,750. Diers said the bid from Baker Concrete and Excavating was almost three times less than the nearest bidder.

The new city logo and lettering that would be represented on the Corporate Drive water tower after a new paint job is completed was voted unanimously to be accepted.

The current 5-feet tall black lettering on the water tower reads “Charles City” and sits on a blue and teal background. It has been suggested by city leaders to increase the size of the lettering to 8 or 9 feet with a maximum height of 12 feet possible.

There is $260,000 budgeted this year for the painting project that also includes some repairs of the million-gallon tower near the Southwest Development Park.