St. Joseph City Commissioners have approved the first three parts of a sewer project at a cost of $561,000. At a Monday meeting, City Engineer Tim Zebell told them bids for the combined sewer overflow final compliance program were sought and two contractors were considered. Staff went with Wade Trim so they could stick with the same firm throughout what will be a long and complicated project. Budgeting has been affected by the same thing other budgets have.
“Inflation is factor with the proposal,” Zebell said. “Part of the process is flow monitoring and hydraulic modeling to make sure that the storage size is right. The flow monitoring alone is swallowing the entire budget because of the inflation. It’s very labor intensive and equipment intensive.”
Zebell said there will be additional phases to the work. It’s needed to treat sewer water to meet EPA standards. Also Monday, commissioners approved a contract with the city’s public works employees. City Manager John Hodgson said they’ll get pay increases of $1.45 across the board, and the contract establishes an on-call system for them to respond to emergencies in a timely manner. A cost of living pay increase of 5.6% was also approved for non-union staff, which will cost the city about $48,000.
