Council moves forward with projects, purchases

Published 3:05 pm Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday, tentatively awarded a contract for a sewer project, approved expenditures for city pool-related equipment and accepted a bid for concrete work at the Susiegray Moore Sports Complex.

The tentative $1.28 million contract for the sewer project went to Insituform Technologies (AGEON Corp.), with the contract subject to the approval of the N.C. Division of Water State Revolving Fund and acceptance of the contractor’s safety evaluation, according to a memorandum from Frankie Buck, the city’s director of public works, to the mayor and council members.

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Infrastructure manages the revolving fund providing the money for the project. Layne Inliner submitted a $1.36 million bid, and Tri-State Utilities entered a $1.64 million bid.

Rivers & Associates, which did the engineering for the project, recommended the contract be awarded to Insituform Technologies.

The city is improving its wastewater collection system by repairing and enhancing its sewers, including installing linings in some sewer pipes.

In other business, the council approved spending $10,900 for equipment for the city pool at the Hildred T. Moore Aquatic & Fitness Center. The equipment purchases include a pool heater ($6,500), a pool motor ($2,000), supervised alarm ($750) and an automated external defibrillator ($1,650).

Due to a faulty dehumidifier at the pool, increased moisture at the pool has caused mechanical problems with other equipment, according to a memorandum from Kristi Roberson, the city’s parks and recreation director, to the mayor and council members. “However, the other equipment is an immediate need in order to keep the pool open for members and the community,” she wrote.

The pool’s roof needs repairing, but that project (already funded) can be delayed budget year, Roberson noted. “Our proposal is to move forward with these purchases, listed below, and delay the roof repairs into the 17-18 CIP budget. In the event there are additional repairs, we will bring those to you as they occur,” she wrote.

The council awarded a $56,000 contract to B.E. Singleton & Sons for some of the concrete work planned for the Susiegray McConnell Sports Complex near Washington-Warren Airport.

The council also approved a purchase order for the project, which includes fields 3, 4 and 6.

The city budgeted $56,000 for this phase of the overall project, but bids came in higher than the budgeted amount. The city asked the lowest bidder, B.E. Singleton & Sons, to redo its bid based on the budgeted $56,000. Singleton’s original bid was $96,000. Advance Concrete submitted a $142,274 bid. St. Clair Trucking, Pasco Concrete and Superior Concrete chose not to bid on the work.

“I was determined that they could complete work on three of the six fields. The city will have to budget additional funds in the 2017-2018 budget to complete the project,” wrote Mac Daniels, the Public Works Department’s maintenance supervisor, in a memorandum to the mayor and council members. That additional amount would be $40,000, according to a city document.

The project, in part, is designed to improve mobility for handicapped people at the sports complex and make the complex more compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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