Council gives OK to upgrade water system and wells
At the Century Town Council meeting on Tuesday, March 19, Dale Long, with Municipal Engineering, Inc., gave an update of the Century Well and Water Plant Rehabilitation Project, saying it’s a legislative appropriation project that will require additional funding to get the town’s water system to a more sustainable utility.
Long said the bids that came in on March 7 were higher than the town has the money to pay for.
He suggested splitting the work into three phases, one for each well, emphasizing that well No. 1 is the town’s best working well at present.
“The recommendation is to award well No. 2 and get it up and running as well,” said Long. “You have about $350,000 of grant money left. The bid is $599,000, so the difference is about $245,000. The recommendation is to pay that difference out of Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds and be able to award base bid to work on well No. 2.”
He said he thought town staff could work on the well house, replacing rotten wood, painting and other improvements. The improvements include making the well automated, eliminating manual addition of chemicals by staff.
“Let me make it clear that at this time, we do have two functioning wells,” said Council Member Alicia Johnson. “They are in major need of upgrades. They’re very old. All the electrical equipment is antiquated and definitely needs to be upgraded. Also they’re very ugly. They’re in bad need of a facelift. The reason it is so important that we have two functioning wells, if we are running on one well and if that well goes out guess what happens-none of us have water.”
Mayor Luis Gomez said the town staff has been working hard to manually keep it running smoothly, manually loading chemicals.
“Ninety-nine percent of the improvements proposed are items that have been on warning letters the town has gotten from sanitary survey so this is stuff the DEP is already got their eye on and has directed the town to fix,” said Long.
Council Member Johnson made the motion to approve to award the base bid to Evans Contracting, Inc. for $334,707 and to Dunaway Electrical Services, Inc. for their bid of $264,876.43, contingent on approval to award being received from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Council Member Henry Cunningham seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Council Member Sandra McMurray Jackson was absent.
Council Member Cunningham made the motion to allow the use of about $250,000 in LOST funds to make up the difference in the cost, which was seconded by Council Member Johnson. The motion passed.
In other business, the council:
-Approved adoption of the Policies and Procedures Manual required by Florida Commerce to move forward with the Hurricane Sally Disaster Recovery Community Development Block Grant the town was awarded to build a shelter and repair two of the town’s bridges
-Approved the mayor to sign a promissory note to repay the Florida Department of Transportation for the costs associated with the town-owned gas, sewer and water line relocation work on Highway 29, to be paid most likely from Local Option Sales Tax funds (will be brought back to the council to vote on).
-Approved a change order for the Pilgrim Lodge and Industrial Park water lift stations Phase 1 of the Community Development Block Grant for an additional 30 days to complete the project (April 14, 2024).
