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DPW tells council state CHIPS funding varies; wastewater plant staffing and contract options raised
Summary
Council pressed DPW on CHIPS variability, road program reductions and wastewater plant operations; DPW said state allocations change yearly and the wastewater plant faces recruitment and deferred-maintenance challenges.
Councilmembers questioned the Department of Public Works (DPW) on road repair funding and water and wastewater operations during the 2026 budget review.
DPW representatives said state CHIPS allocations fluctuate annually and the city cannot guarantee a fixed amount from year to year. On the prior-year $4,040,000 reduction to a road construction line, DPW said that cut required scaling back some repairs; where possible, crews combined paving work with water and sewer projects and used contractors to maintain throughput.
Responding to a question about unit costs for pipe replacement, a DPW representative said, “it's $300 a foot for water or $300 a foot for sewer. So if our target is a mile of infrastructure a year, it's about 1,600,000.0.” DPW stressed the figure depends heavily on exact scope, pipe depth and materials.
On paving, DPW reported roughly 51–52 city blocks paved this year (the department counts a city block as about 14,500 square feet). The city has increased pavement work in recent years with a mix of contractor and in-house crews and better asset-management data, which the department said now shows per-event and per‑project costs in near real time.
The wastewater treatment plant drew extended discussion. DPW said the plant is roughly 40 years old and has significant deferred maintenance. Because of recruitment challenges for licensed operators, the city contracts much of day‑to‑day operations to Camden Group. DPW said Camden has staffed the plant at about 80% of required personnel in recent months and proposed a possible 10% contract increase; the department said that a multiyear contract could stabilize the rate while competitive RFPs would preserve market discipline.
DPW outlined options including longer multiyear contracts with fixed annual rates, outsourcing more operational budget authority to a contractor, or keeping project-by-project capital requests under city control. The department asked council to consider the tradeoff between stable contracted operations and retaining direct budgetary control of capital decisions.
DPW also discussed vacancies and operational impacts: water plant crews are nearly fully staffed; wastewater has had persistent trouble hiring licensed operators and the department has reduced one trainee position to control budget increases. The department said vacancies make work more reactive than proactive and emphasized the need for sustained recruitment and possible organizational adjustments to restore proactive preventive maintenance.
DPW said it would provide council with updated cost-per‑block and cost-per‑mile figures via the asset-management system and follow up on CHIPS projections when state guidance is available.
Context and next steps: DPW seeks council guidance on whether to pursue longer-term contracted operations for the wastewater plant and will provide detailed cost updates and procurement options, including RFP timing and cost projections.
