A meeting and a move

There were three major items at the City Council meeting on Monday night. First was a public hearing on a grant proposal to help fund a water main from the new well south of town to the water treatment plant. The grant will request $550,000 and the City will provide $975,100 funded by bonds. A spokesman for Commonwealth Engineering was there to explain that the project would include a 12-inch main from the well. It will run along Sparling and then down Milroy until it cuts between two houses and connects into the treatment plant from the back. Well number two, which is no longer used because it is contaminated with chemicals, will be capped and the well house demolished. There will be new sidewalks along Sparling where there are none now and they will extend to the substation. The pictures below show more.

The City is working on getting everything ready and has marked the route with flags and stakes. The City will be ready to move when the grant is decided.

The well is needed. The City is using both of its existing wells at capacity.

The second major item was bid openings for the switch gear and transformers for the proposed substation on the northwest corner of Bunkum Road and CR 850W. There were three bids for the switching gear with a low of $332,408 and a high of $439,729. There were four bids for the transformer ranging from $408,203 to $502,971. The bids were given to an engineer from IMPA who will make recommendations at the next Council meeting.

The final big item was a discussion of the future of the old fire house. It will be used by the police department and the discussion was about how to make the changes needed. The mayor suggested that it be done with a design build. This is a new term for me, and here is an explanation from Wikipedia.

The police department's need for more space is mostly for storage. At present they use both the basement and second floor of the City Building. There was discussion about the settling that has occurred. To remedy it, the space under the the floor has been pumped with filler three times, with the last time about 23 yards of concrete being used. The settling should not be a problem for the police department because they will not be putting large trucks on the floor and also the floor will be opened up to redo the drainage and heating so problems can be identified.

In other news, I noticed that Hamstra was working inside the space that was formerly Fashion Bug. I asked several people what might be happening and today I got an answer. My source said that the space is being divided as the picture below shows. One part (I do not know which part) will be the future home of Jasper County office of Division of Family Resources. The current office, which is on the corner of College and Grace, has a for rent sign on it even though it is still occupied.