Sewer treatment plant plans move ahead

Bids for the Pea Ridge Wastewater Treatment plant are to be addressed by city officials during a special meeting slated for 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4, in the council room at City Hall.

The bids were to be approved during the regular monthly meeting Tuesday, Nov. 20, but additional paper work and legalities postponed that.

Ken Hayes, City Water/Wastewater Department superintendent, told city officials that he has been working on this for eight to nine years and had talked to another firm in 2011.

"The main reason we're building a new plant is we've outgrown the old one," Hayes said, then presented a slide program explaining the chemical regulations imposed by the state government as well as how the plant works. He said the regulations have changed and become more stringent. He said the Pea Ridge plant affects water in Missouri and must meet Missouri guidelines as well.

The plant proposed by McGoodwin, Williams and Yates in 2011 was designed to double the 300,000 gallons a day bringing capacity up to 600,000 gallons a day and would have cost $7,500,000. The plan included using the current plant and adding an oxidation ditch facility.

The current plan will treat 1 million gallons a day and cost $7,811,259. "It looks like a lot of money, but if you look at the proposal from 2011, we're much better off now," Hayes said, adding that if the city had moved forward with the previous plan, they would still be making updates today because regulations governing phosphorous has changed.

"We were hoping to have everything done tonight," Mayor Jackie Crabtree told City Council members. "But we just got the letter of conditions today."

He said there has to be a notice of public hearing before the bond can be approved.

Other items on the agenda for the special meeting are Ord. 624, Pea Ridge Fire Department, and Res. 418, Volz Builders, LLC.

General News on 11/28/2018