City staff recommends Reeves Young for 0.95 MGD sewer expansion under guaranteed maximum price

Hoschton staff recommended the council approve a construction contract under a Construction Manager at Risk process for the 0.95 MGD sewer expansion with Reeves Young, the firm selected through a qualifications review.

Jerry Hood explained the city moved from traditional design-bid-build to a collaborative CMAR process and said Reeves Young was selected about a year ago following a statement-of-qualifications review. "Your selected contractor, we selected them through a competitive statement of qualifications review about a year ago. So Reeves Young, Mr. Matt McCormick is with us tonight with Reeves Young," Hood said.

Hood presented a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for construction that he quoted in the meeting. The GMP was discussed verbally in the transcript as "31,767, $1.76"; staff characterized the figure as a guaranteed maximum and said it contained several allowances and that, historically, projects with Reeves Young have come in under the GMP. Hood said much of the plant and pipeline design is deliberately sized with extra capacity so the city can move toward a 2 MGD expansion shortly after completing the 0.95 MGD project.

Council members asked whether money budgeted for the 2.0 MGD expansion would reduce future costs; Hood confirmed that some funding overlap would reduce the later project's cost. A council member asked how long the city could stay at its current plant before regulatory pressure required moving off-site. Hood said he did not foresee major regulatory changes in the immediate future beyond potential future requirements related to PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). He cited nearby communities’ monitoring and meetings but said no immediate action had been mandated in those cases.

Hood also noted current and historical assumptions used for flow design and said per-customer water use has decreased in recent years; he said Hoschton currently runs about 370,000 gallons per day at the plant and that the planned 2 MGD capacity would position the city for growth.

Staff recommended the council approve the contract with Reeves Young; the transcript records recommendation language but no formal vote in the provided excerpt.