By Kellen Olshefski
SLN Staff
In a 6-0 vote Monday night the City of Elkhorn Common Council awarded a contract to Miron Construction Company for the construction of the city’s Northeast Water Treatment Plant.
According to information provided in the council’s packet, Miron Construction Company, of Neenah, offered the second lowest bid on the project, with a base bid of $8.75 million and an alternate bid of $8.56 million.
Other base bids included $8.72 million by Gilbank Construction, of Clinton, $9.18 million by Scherrer Construction, of Burlington, and $9.72 million by Staab Construction, of Marshfield.
Before having the plant redesigned and re-engineered, the estimated project cost came in at more $12 million. The new price results in a roughly $4 million in savings for Elkhorn taxpayers in comparison to original plans, according to Olson.
Olson said when plans were brought before the council four years ago, when he was serving as an aldermen, the plant had been over-engineered to service 50,000 residents, on top of business and industrial needs.
“So, we questioned it, denied it, and then under my administration, we said woah, woah, woah,” he said.
Under direction from the council, the plant was re-engineered and cut down to service a population of 25,000, which Olson said is more realistic as growth goes. Additionally, Olson said the plan would also allow for expansion, if needed, as Elkhorn grows over the next 50 years.
The new price comes from building the full plant, but only bringing one of the two wells drilled north of the city online at this time.
“That will service way more than enough,” he said.
The city had previously sunk $1.6 million into the drilling of two wells for the new plant back in 2013.
The contract award is contingent on paperwork filed with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.
Olson said the city previously had certification through the commission, however, with changes in state legislation, the city is working on getting recertified. He said having previously been certified, the city doesn’t view this as a major concern at this time.
Moving forward, Olson said the plan is to have shovels in the ground on June 30 of this summer, with completion of the new plant occurring sometime in the following 12 to 18 months. To help this construction progress smoothly, those in charge of the organizing may want to look at using Vista Viewpoint for field service as well as other construction and fieldwork software so that crews are meeting their targets in a timely manner.
Olson thanked the council Monday night for their diligence over the past two years in finally reaching this point with the project.
“Nice work to everybody on that,” he said. “It took us two years to get it done, going through all of the engineering and re-engineering processes.
“I appreciate all of your patience in that and I think it turned out to be quite a nice savings for the community and gets us moving forward with a secure water system.”
Olson said it’s a great step forward for the city and serves as a sign of the council’s commitment to providing Elkhorn taxpayers proper water treatment facilities.
The growing need
The growing need of the new plant is something that’s been heavily brought to the council’s attention over the past few years.
Previously, City of Elkhorn Utilities Director John Murphy said the city is facing “huge issues” surrounding the city’s Centralia Street water treatment plant, a facility which City Administrator Sam Tapson has previously noted is more than 100-years-old with the newest piece of equipment being installed in 1979.
Murphy has previously said the facility has already outlived its livelihood twice and if the plant were to go down, Elkhorn’s Water Utility would not be able to meet summer peak needs.
“We’re talking about limiting water usage,” Murphy said in July 2014.
Once the new plant is online, if Centralia were to fail, Murphy said the city could meet water needs between the Northeast and Lakeland water treatment plants.
