The Junction City Council voted July 8 to award a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems upgrade contract to the Automation Group for $105,309.

Public Works staff explained the city’s SCADA system controls water and wastewater pump stations and has become technologically obsolete. Staff said the selected turnkey conversion will migrate 15 years of legacy data, standardize licensing and hardware, and push the replacement cycle to a 10-year cadence. The project budget will be covered from Public Works capital funds and administration capital funds previously set aside for computer upgrades.

Staff told the council the upgrade will also bring the system into compliance with current cybersecurity expectations for utilities, a requirement increasingly asked by grant and loan programs. In the staff presentation the cost was summarized as “a $105,309 for everything.”

Councilor Hancock moved and Councilor Senegut seconded a motion to award the project to the Automation Group and authorize the city administrator to sign legally sufficient contract documents. The motion carried on council vote.

Staff said the long-term benefit is lower average costs: although the initial conversion is more expensive, the city expects to spend $30,000–$40,000 less over the next 10 years because future upgrades will be purely cyclical rather than full conversions.

The council’s vote authorized contract execution and directed staff to proceed with the conversion and cybersecurity implementation steps required for water/wastewater compliance.