By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
HOBART – Pending approval by the state Public Service Commission, the village board agreed Wednesday, Jan. 2, to award a bid of $485,840 to Advance Construction of Green Bay for Hobart’s in-line booster station upgrades for the water utility.
Village Administrator Aaron Kramer, who noted PSC approval is required because of making a change to Hobart’s water system, said the project cost came in higher than previously estimated because it is part of a bigger project with the new water tower and property purchased by the village last summer.
Kramer noted the initial estimate had been around $350,000, compared to the current project price.
“Obviously, we have the funds to do this,” he said. “They’re sitting in the bank with the bond proceeds.”
Joshua Steffeck, a water/wastewater engineer with Robert E. Lee & Associates, Inc., appeared before the board to discuss what led to the added costs.
“When I went back into my records, I found out that we never really put an estimate together once we decided to locate the booster station on that Borg property that we recently purchased,” Steffeck said. “So, the cost estimate for the mid-$300,000s is for the booster station being on the east side of the road.”
Steffeck informed the board an additional 110 feet of water main is required to be installed with the booster station being on the former Borg property, though that water main cost was included in the future ground reservoir cost estimate.
“So we’re just kind of shifting spending money now, instead of five years from now,” he said.
Steffeck said the additional water main cost is approximately $110,000.
Other things modified that weren’t part of the initial estimate, Steffeck said, included using the new water tower as a relay point for the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.
“Right now, everything’s bouncing off the existing water tower, which does not have emergency power,” he said. “So, when the power goes out… someone has to come in and run it.”
Steffeck said future plans call for relocating the generator currently at the booster station to the new water tower to provide emergency power to keep the SCADA system running.
In addition, Steffeck said the initial estimate didn’t account for powering the existing in-line booster station on the east side of North Pine Tree Road with the electric service and emergency generator of the new booster station, which requires running electrical conduits under North Pine Tree.
“What we’re going to do is put a new generator in at the booster station – a larger one due to having a larger pump and putting in three-phase power,” he said. “So, we are going to run conduits across the street to keep the existing in-line booster station running as a backup to this new station.”
Steffeck also informed the board about some of the instrumentation costs being taken out of the new water tower contract, which came in approximately $13,000 below the cost estimate.
Because of there being instrument work on both the new water tower and booster station projects, Steffeck noted better pricing was expected by including all of the instrumentation for both projects in only the booster station project.
Kramer said funds for the in-line booster station upgrades are coming out of the bond the village took out last summer for Tax Incremental District No. 1 and will have no impact on Hobart’s water rates.