The Tonganoxie City Council voted Nov. 17 to authorize a loan amendment with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) State Revolving Fund program and to award a construction contract for wastewater treatment improvements.

City staff and the project engineer told the council that bids for the wastewater project came in materially higher than the engineer’s prior estimate and that KDHE offered additional loan capacity. "We got the conditional approval on the loan documents and their staff are gonna update those and prepare them for our signature," staff said during the meeting. Staff recommended moving forward with the low bidder while final KDHE paperwork is completed so the bid remains valid.

Councilmember Dale moved to authorize mayoral and staff signatures on the SRF loan amendment for the project noted in the record as C2306701 (the record contains inconsistent project-number text). The motion passed by voice vote. Dale then moved to approve draft resolution 11 25 02 to award the construction contract for the Tonganoxie 2025 wastewater treatment improvements, including the base bid and alternative No. 1, at a total of $6,349,700, contingent on KDHE approvals; Miss Stevens seconded and the motion carried.

Engineers cautioned the council that bid results can vary from engineer’s estimates. As one consultant put it, "it's hard to tell when contractors are competing... I can't tell you what's behind a lot of those numbers." The record includes an inconsistency in the low-bidder name: staff identified the low bidder during presentation as "CrossLink Construction," while the resolution and motion named "Crossland Heavy contractors." The award was approved contingent on KDHE final sign-off.

Next steps include completion of KDHE loan documents and execution of the construction contract; no construction authorization will proceed until required KDHE approvals are finalized.