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Council authorizes advertising for bid to replace sludge thickener after plant equipment failures
Summary
The council approved advertising for bids to replace a sludge thickener at the wastewater treatment plant after both existing thickeners failed; staff said the equipment was installed in 1994 and the failures left redundancy lacking during repairs.
The Natchitoches City Council approved a resolution to advertise for bids to replace a sludge thickener at the city’s wastewater treatment plant after staff reported that redundant equipment had failed.
Council members adopted Resolution No. 053 of 2025, authorizing the mayor to advertise for bids for equipment replacement (sludge thickener No. 1) at the wastewater treatment plant. The procurement will be handled by the Purchasing Department with bids publicly opened on July 10, 2025, unless schedule changes are posted.
City engineer Norman Nassau explained the operational problem: the plant had two thickeners (east and west). “While we were working on the east thickener, about... a month and a half before we completed the east thickener, the west thickener decided to break in the exact same manner that the east thickener broke,” Norman said. He added both units were installed around 1994 and are roughly 31 years old.
Staff said the plant was able to maintain discharge compliance while both thickeners were out of service, but the loss of redundancy prompted a DEQ notice and elevated the priority of replacement. The resolution directs Purchasing to advertise the project and identifies the committee that will evaluate proposals (Clarissa Brown Smith, Ed Lee, and Tim Tucc).
The council voted in favor of advertising for bids; staff said the replacement should restore redundancy and improve long-term reliability of the solids-handling process.
Council members asked staff and the engineer to field technical questions from the public and report back with procurement results at future meetings.
