SOLDIERS GROVE - Delta-3 Engineering’s Bart Nies was on hand at the Soldiers Grove Village Board meeting to present his company’s contract for the village’s sewer system upgrade project, and to explain the process going forward.
The board met at the Village Hall on Thursday, Oct. 8. Despite a statewide face mask mandate, none of the board members, village employees, or the Delta-3 Enginering company representative were wearing a mask.
“The village has been approved for a $914,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), and Gary Koch from Community Development Alternatives (CDA) has sent in the pre-agreement,” Nies explained. “The next step is for you to approve the contract with my company.”
Nies said that the plan would be to draw up the plans and specifications over the winter months. Then the work will be let out for bids in March/April, with the contractor starting work in May. Nies said that the village can expect some lag time, while the pumps and controls for the lift station are ordered. He said the schedule is for the project to start and finish in 2021.
“Will the bids come from more than one contractor?” Trustee Shayne Chapman asked.
“When we let out a bid, we send it to contractors all over Wisconsin, as well as contractors in Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa,” Nies replied.
“I’d like our attorney to look the contract over before we give it final approval,” Trustee Vicki Campbell said. “I’d be comfortable approving it contingent upon review of our attorney.”
Trustees Harrison Heilman and Shayne Chapman agreed with Campbell.
The board unanimously approved the contract with Delta-3 Engineering for the sewer system upgrade, contingent upon review and approval of the village’s attorney.
The next step was to approve a loan for the project from the People’s State Bank to pay the village’s share of the project in the amount of $457,000. The motion received unanimous approval on a roll call vote.
Nies explained that between $450,000 to $500,000 of this could be expected to be recovered when the village received a grant and low interest loan through the DNR available under the Clean Water Act. The grant would cover 50 percent, and the loan would cover the other 50 percent of the village’s portion of the project cost, over 20 years at a 1.75 percent interest rate.
Roof repairs
Village President Paul Nicholson reported that he had discussed needed repairs to the roof of the old part of the library and the village hall with Mark Swiggum.
“The roof is collapsing, and if we don’t get it repaired before winter, then our problems are going to get a lot worse,” Nicholson said. “The estimate I received from him for the work is between $7,000 to $10,000 – the variance is because he won’t know how bad it is until he gets in there.”
Trustees Harrison Heilman and Vicki Campbell agreed that it was not in accordance with village policy to go forward with only one bid for a project.
“I am just going by what was decided at the last meeting,” Nicholson explained. “There is a strong timeliness issue here.”
Shayne Chapman moved, and Steve George seconded hiring Mark Swiggum to do the roof repairs. Vicki Campbell voted against the motion.
In other business
In other business, the board:
• heard from Public Works that they had been busy with reading water meters, replacing bulbs in lights, pulling the flowers off the streets, getting the dump truck back from LaFarge, making a different plan for removal of the sewer sludge, and completing pavement projects
• heard from the Fire Department that they had received and deployed the new radios, and the reception is so good that first responders in Coon Valley were picking them up. Fire Chief Roger Olson reported that they had taken all the trucks out for a drive-by for a birthday party, and that some of the members were taking classes
• responded to a request from Vicki Campbell about whether campers in the park were paying their fees–Nicholson said that the main thing is that it had “been a while” since the village received a check from Campbell’s One Stop-Campbell said that she would look into that immediately
• set the village Trick-or-Treat hours for 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31
• approved the purchase of 6-12 new water meters from CARES Act funds in the amount of $9,600.
• agreed to increase the price of bulk water purchases from the village to $50 for between 1,500 to 2,000 gallons
• agreed to hire police protection for the Myrtle Lake fundraiser
• approved three operator licenses.