Sunbury approves Simonson contract to expand wastewater plant; council accepts base bid and one alternate

Sunbury City Council on Jan. 29 approved awarding the construction contract for the city’s wastewater treatment plant expansion to Simonson Construction and approved associated professional services agreements, following staff recommendations to accept the base bid and one alternate for improvements to the operations building.

City Administrator Jake Hennessy, who presented the staff memo and recommendation, told council the project will increase the plant’s capacity from about 1,125,000 gallons per day to 2,000,000 gallons per day. “Ours is a $30,000,000 project,” Hennessy said during the presentation. He recommended council approve the base bid and one alternate (the operations building improvements) and decline a second alternate for an expanded sludge storage facility so staff can seek other options for that work.

The council voted on a series of related items at the meeting. Earlier the body approved a resolution to retain CT Consultants for engineering services related to the expansion; council later approved a resolution authorizing construction…