Richwood officials approved a contract for the new water treatment plant, an important first step in bringing the project forward.
At the regular village council meeting Monday evening, council voted to approve the tentative bid award contingent upon a successful approval of Ohio EPA loan financing.
The bid award went to Shinn Brothers Inc., a contractor out of Celina, for $4.6 million.
Craig Knapke, the project manager with Access Engineering, told council that the bid was the only one that came in and actually came in higher than the estimate.
“The bid was $4,670,000. It was over the estimate of $4,250,000 but within the 10% that we can award that contract,” he said. “There was quite a bit of interest from subcontractors, just no additional general contractor.”
Knapke said there were two other contractors in the conversation that didn’t offer bids but could contribute services to the project.
Artesian of Pioneer is premier supplier and installer of water treatment equipment and Weston and Associates specializes in manufacturing and constructing tanks.
“I’m not really sure why there wasn’t additional interest but that’s where it is and what we’ve got to deal with,” Knapke said, noting there is a lot of work and demand available to companies at the moment.
He said he’s worked with Shinn Brothers before on nearly 80-90% of the water plant projects Access Engineering has done.
“They’ve done quite a few of the water plants we’ve done and always have worked in conjunction with Artesian of Pioneer to do the projects,” he said. “So I have no concerns with the contractor.”
The bid could be redone given the amount, but Knapke said the funding requires the project be under contract by the end of the year and that, combined with only receiving a single bid and the likelihood of rising prices, the company recommended sticking with this pathway.
Richwood received $2.6 million in wastewater infrastructure funding, $750,000 from a Community Development Block Grant and $1.6 million from the Ohio EPA.
Given the loan payments, Knapke said that would cost water customers $7.66 a month but he recommended rounding that up to an even $10.
“My recommendation to you guys related to your rates, to make sure that you’re pulling in the money that you need to cover that loan, is to not necessarily adjust your base rate or your charged per thousand gallons, but add a water capital improvement surcharge to the bill,” he said. “At a minimum you got to hit the $7.66 but I would suggest maybe going more than that just because there’s going to be additional costs in the future. Whether that’s wells or work at the tower or water line work, you’re always going to have a need for capital improvement projects.”
The initial $7.66 would be set aside for plant itself while the additional amount would be used to build capital for those future needs, he added.
Knapke said construction could start as early as this summer, either June or July.
“The intent would be to get the building under a roof and kind of closed up for the winter and then do all the internal plumbing work through the winter months,” he said. “And then basically bring it online sometime in spring of ’25.”
The new plant will have water softener included, which should significantly reduce the village’s hard water, and the village can elect to add that regular service to the agreement.
“They’ll fill it as needed with the salt and come back and clean that tank once a year,” Knapke said. “On the back in, these guys, they’re really good with getting here to fix something if there is an issue.”
The plant will be warrantied for five years and will begin once it’s operational.
In other business Monday, council voted to keep a position vacant in the streets department after one employee retired. Council members said instead of replacing the position, the money would be spread among existing employees, amounting to about a $5 per hour increase to workers and $3 per hour to the operator, fiscal officer and village administrator. The change would save the village nearly $25,000 per year.