City looks at piping wastewater to Decatur plant for treatment

— The city of Gravette’s engineering firm has provided a revised cost estimate for constructing a system to transport Gravette’s wastewater/sewage to Decatur for treatment in that city’s facility.

The “preliminary opinion” estimate from Mc-Goodwin, Williams and Yates totals $5,281,000 for constructing the line and supportive equipment. This compares with the firm’s earlier estimate of more than $6,000,000 for the project.

The new document listed several items that were removed from the initial estimate which would become the responsibility of the city, including clean out of the existing lagoons, rehabilitation of the existing main lift station, lining the existing lagoons, an odor- control system and any inflation costs to the project bid date.

The Fayetteville firm also said the city owes $358,000 for services rendered to date on the project.

The City Council, at its Thursday night meeting, authorized Mayor Byron Warren to negotiate with Decatur the terms and costs of pursuing that project.Also the authorizing resolution allows the mayor to explore other alternatives such as negotiating with other engineering firms.

In other action at the meeting, which preceded a committee meeting, the governing body accepted a bid from Alexander Pools to repair the municipal swimming pool. A caveat requires such repairs must meet state health department approval. The Grove/Gravette firm was low bidder for the project which will allow the pool to open this year, after being closed last summer.

After hearing a request from the Summer Baseball League to assist with planned improvements, the council approved $12,000 for lighting two T-ball fields. The cost will cover all equipment and its installation. The council did not act on a request for funds for scoreboards.

The final action of the council was to approve Susan von Ree as a member of the planning commission. Former mayor/present council member Bill Howard objected to the appointment, citing conflict of interest since commission chair Mike von Ree is her husband. von Ree said the Arkansas Municipal League said the appointment was legal.

Sports, Pages 10 on 03/16/2011