Webster County approves $349,595 contract for Meyer Memorial Marsh wetland restoration

The Webster County Board of Supervisors approved a $349,595.50 contract with Empire Excavating to restore Meyer Memorial Marsh wetlands and reconstruct an oxbow on Lizard Creek, Conservation Director Matt Cosgrove told the board.

The project matters for water quality in western Webster County: it will reconstruct a wetland and an oxbow from an old Lizard Creek channel and install two solar pumps to move water from the creek into wetland basins for treatment, Cosgrove said.

Cosgrove said Bolton & Menk completed the design and the county solicited bids April 27–May 13. The county’s engineer estimated the work at $450,000; bids ranged from a low of $349,595.50 to a high of $698,077. Bolton & Menk recommended Empire Excavating as the responsive low bidder, and the board acknowledged that recommendation and approved the contract.

Cosgrove said the work builds on bank-restoration work done two years earlier on about 2,000 feet of Lizard Creek. He described the treatment approach in plain terms: “Oxbows and wetlands are our main water quality enhancers, you know, through letting that water sit and be treated by the vegetation and stuff on-site,” Cosgrove said.

The county described the funding as a pass-through grant administered through the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship; the county will pay project costs and seek 100% reimbursement under that grant. Cosgrove said substantial completion is targeted for Oct. 3, weather permitting, and that liquidated-damage provisions apply for work past the contract window.

Project work is unit-price based; county staff will handle seeding after construction. The board voted to accept the engineer’s recommendation and proceed with the construction contract.

Less critical details: six bidders submitted proposals; the county expects reimbursement in the next fiscal year for construction costs incurred after design work done in the current fiscal year.