The Sandusky City Commission voted Nov. 10 to adopt an ordinance authorizing a design-build contract with Mosier Construction Inc. for rehabilitation of Digester No. 2 at the Sandusky Water Pollution Control plant. The ordinance was adopted under suspension of rules after extended discussion about procurement approach, cost estimates and schedule.

The digester has been inoperable for about two years, and city staff and engineers said the 47-year-old equipment suffered metal corrosion that left structural concrete intact but required replacement or major rehabilitation of metal components. City Engineer/Staff and the design team recommended a design-build approach to deliver the specialized work.

Commissioner Cook expressed appreciation for staff getting a package before the commission but said he was surprised the project was issued as design-build rather than a traditional project-delivery model and asked whether the approach reduced cost or limited competition. “I was a little surprised when I saw that this was put out as a design build project,” he said, noting design-build is more common for new construction.

City staff and Josh Snyder, interim public works director, said an earlier $1 million figure was an informal, dated staff estimate and not a current engineer estimate. Snyder said the million-dollar figure ‘‘was hatched a long time ago’’ from wastewater staff takeoffs and was not based on recent engineering. He told the commission, “We didn't know what we didn't know until we had an engineer involved and got down the road with design and they're going, million dollars is not going to do this.”

Commission President warned of operational risk while the city is operating with one primary digester: “If it fails, we are up a creek, aren't we?” he said, and commissioners noted the city had been functionally operating with single-digester capacity for the past 17–18 months. Staff said the targeted completion timeline is 12 to 18 months.

Commissioners also questioned why only one proposal was received for the design-build solicitation. The law director and staff explained the scoring and vetting process for design-build and said the specialty nature of digester fabrication and rehabilitation limits the number of qualified vendors; StructurePoint and other engineering reviews confirmed complexity and likely restricted bidder pool.

After discussion emphasizing the project's urgency and the need for redundancy at the plant, the commission approved the ordinance in a roll-call vote. The adopted motion directs the city manager to execute the contract and declares the ordinance take immediate effect under section 14 of the city charter.

The city's disclosures at the meeting did not include the final contract value in the floor discussion; commissioners asked to be kept informed of detailed cost breakdowns and procurement steps going forward.