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Commission awards $8.37 million Erie Express pump station pretreatment contract; city seeks OWDA financing
Summary
The commission authorized a construction contract with Peterson Construction Co. for the Erie Express pump station pretreatment facility and approved applying for Ohio Water Development Authority financing; staff said the project will prevent frequent manual removal of grease and rags and reduce combined/sewer overflow risks.
The Springfield City Commission authorized an $8,368,000 contract with Peterson Construction Company for the Erie Express pump station pretreatment facility and approved applying for financing through the Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA).
City staff said the project will install pretreatment at a pump station that has repeatedly clogged with grease and rags, forcing crews to manually clear obstructions multiple times per week. A city utilities staff member, Crestmore (staff member), described the site behind Wilbur Buscard at the dead end of Skinner Lane and said the station “collects more grease and rags than we see anywhere in the community, to the point where all of the mechanical things we have in place will not work.” He said crews currently spend many hours several times a week manually removing material to keep sewage flowing.
City Manager Brian Heck and staff framed the work as part of combined sewer overflow (CSO) and sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) prevention. Heck said the financing and the construction contract are linked: the city sought OWDA loan consideration this month to meet the authority’s application deadline. Finance staff reported an estimated interest rate of 4.72 percent and an estimated semiannual payment of about $276,000; the semiannual payments would be charged to the sewer fund.
Heck described practical benefits: the pretreatment installation will intercept grease and rags “at the beginning, make it something that can be properly separated and hold away or flow through the sewer, eliminate the concern about the sewer blinding off and eliminate the need for human intervention in that nasty, nasty job.” Commissioners said the schedule was time sensitive because the OWDA application deadline requires the project to be on OWDA’s agenda.
The contract and the financing application were approved by roll call. Staff said the project targets a chronic operational problem, reduces staff exposure to hazardous manual cleaning, and reduces the risk of a larger sanitary sewer overflow across an extensive upstream area during heavy rain events.
