Prineville council approves intent to award $2.87 million contract for ASR No. 2 well and pump station

The Prineville City Council unanimously approved an intent to award a $2,865,845 contract to Taylor Northwest on Tuesday to construct Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Well No. 2 and its pump station.

Casey Kaiser, Prineville public works director and assistant city manager, said the new injection‑and‑recovery well will roughly double the city's capacity to inject and withdraw water from a confined aquifer and add redundancy to avoid a single‑point failure. "This will roughly double our capacity to inject and withdraw water out of the aquifer and it will also provide us some redundancy," Kaiser said.

Kaiser told council the project site is on the hill above the existing heliport well, which currently serves as the city's ASR injection/recovery well. The city received three responsive bids; Taylor Northwest submitted the apparent low bid for $2,865,845. Staff recommended the council approve the intent to award to Taylor Northwest.

Council moved and seconded the motion to approve the intent to award and adopted it by roll call: Councilor Ethelman, Councilor Bremer, Councilor Howard, Councilor Smith, Councilor Hutchison and Councilor Sumner voted aye; Mayor Laurie Hooper Antrim also voted aye. The motion passed unanimously.

Kaiser said the project is funded through an agreement with META, which has supported the ASR program, and that the additional well will provide operational flexibility if the existing well requires maintenance.

Ending — With the council's approval, staff will proceed to finalize the contract award and begin preconstruction steps with the contractor in accordance with procurement rules and the city's construction schedule.