Seward council approves emergency rebuild of damaged transmission line after March storm

The Seward City Council on June 1 approved an emergency purchase to rebuild a city transmission line that was damaged in a March 19 storm, accepting a Great Plains Power quote to restore redundancy between the Water Tower and Fourteenth Street substations.

The work stemmed from a storm-damaged segment north of Augusta Drive that severed the loop feeding the Water Tower and Second Street substations, reducing system redundancy, city staff said. Jared, an electric department staff member, told the council Great Plains Power submitted a bid of $108,465 for material and labor to complete the rebuild; he said $24,005.85 of material also is included in the project total. “Due to the emergency nature of restoring the transmission redundancy and maintaining system reliability, I recommend that we accept this quote to proceed with the project as per section 11 purchasing policy,” Jared said.

Council members said the project and related debris-removal costs were included in the disaster documentation submitted to the state as part of the city’s disaster declaration. The city noted the electrical department’s usual bidding threshold is higher than this contract amount, but officials said the emergency and the timing of the first available contractor crew justified the single-source emergency purchase.

A council member moved and a second was recorded; the motion passed on a unanimous recorded vote (8-0). Voting in favor were the council members recorded in the meeting as Francis Scott, O'Keler, Taylor, Thomas, Coulter, McMillan and Morgan (8-0). The council instructed staff to proceed with the accepted quote and to complete the state documentation for disaster reimbursement.

Work to clear trees and brush to allow access and to reconstruct the line was already under way, staff said. Additional cost details and final invoices will be submitted with the city’s disaster reimbursement package to the state.