Council approves $3.50 million ceiling to advance long‑planned Commercial Street wastewater lift‑station project

Leavenworth city council on Jan. 28 approved an increase to the city’s contract with Varela & Associates Inc. to push forward design work on a multi‑phase wastewater collection project that includes a new lift station near Commercial Street.

City utilities staff brought the contract change to a study session because, staff said, about $2,500,000 in grant funding must be committed by this summer or the city risks losing the money. The council voted to raise the contract ceiling to $3,496,620 so staff can start design work and prepare bid‑ready plans for June, subject to legal review and USDA Rural Development approval.

Andy, a city utilities staff member who presented the project to the council, said the city received “USDA Bridal Development Funds” in 2017 for several wastewater projects and that the current work is the remaining piece of phase 3, priority 3. “If we don't send the 2,500,000 that we have in grama funding by this summer, we're going to lose it,” Andy said, urging the council to authorize the engineering amendment so the consultant can begin design and produce bid‑ready plans by June.

The work described in staff materials would abandon an undersized gravity sewer that runs down a steep bank and under a putting course at Enzian Falls, move the main into the roadway where crews can access it, enlarge the pipe, and construct a lift station on a city‑owned parcel to pump flows up to 8th Street. Andy said the lift station parcel is a roughly 30‑by‑30 site the city already owns.

Staff displayed a color exhibit showing red (work proposed for this funding) and blue (future work not funded now). The red items include the lift station and upsizing the gravity main; blue elements would be constructed only if separate funding becomes available. The presenter said the construction estimate for the red scope is about $1.7 million to $2.0 million; the city will know more after formal bids.

Council members pressed staff on schedule and financial risk after news that the federal government had temporarily frozen grants and loans. Andy explained the city’s immediate obligation is to have bid‑ready plans by June to access the $2.5 million; if federal action delays reimbursements, the city could be left covering some consultant costs. Staff estimated that, of the roughly $500,000 engineering contract item, the city would be on the hook for roughly $230,000 if it could not be reimbursed and the city chose not to proceed to construction.

Councilmember Zeke Reister moved the amendment; Councilmember Travis McMaster seconded. The motion passed unanimously. The ordinance the council approved authorizes the mayor to execute amendment number 5 to the owner/engineer agreement with Varela & Associates, increasing the not‑to‑exceed amount to $3,496,620 pending legal counsel and USDA Rural Development approval.

Next steps: staff said it will ask the consultant to prepare bid‑ready plans and expect to advertise for construction in June if the schedule and funding hold. Staff also said they will monitor the federal grant status and return to council with more information if the federal pause affects reimbursement or project timing.