Rapid City
t its Nov. 26 Public Works Committee meeting, members approved consent items 2 through 10, clearing a set of engineering, property and administrative actions including authorization to proceed with sanitary sewer design, a bridge grant application and a landfill funding resolution.

The package included authorization for the mayor and finance director to sign a professional services agreement with HDR Engineering to design and bid rehabilitation work covering about 6,000 feet of sanitary sewer and the rehabilitation of 20 manholes in the area north of Anamosa Street and east of North Maple. Staff said the design work would reduce infiltration and inflow into the system and help capacity planning.

The committee also authorized staff to apply for a 2025 bridge-improvement grant for the Chapel Lane Bridge, which staff described as about 50 years old and the primary entrance to a residential area; the grant would be 80% state and federal funds with a 20% city match. Another consent item granted a utility easement to Golden West at the Water Reclamation Facility site, sited to avoid future WRF expansion and with a provision that Golden West would pay for any future required relocation of its utility.

A landfill-related resolution was included in the consent package to establish a certificate of deposit set aside to meet landfill closure obligations. Staff told the committee that state and federal rules require funds to be available to close active cells and that the sanitation fund would borrow $500,000 from the water fund and $500,000 from the wastewater fund to meet the short-term obligation; staff said a rate study is planned next summer to address longer-term funding needs.

Other items approved included clerical corrections to budget line items, write-offs of two small classes of aged utility balances (one credit totalling $573.33 and a set of uncollected accounts carried for six years totaling $105,299.35), and a change order to an irrigation contract covering an additional zone at Executive Golf Course and a revised connection at the Star of the West softball complex.

Committee members asked staff for details on the $51,000 increase in the final change order for the miscellaneous improvements project; staff said the reconciliation covered 11 bid schedules and included electrical work at a booster station, instrumentation for a gas flare at the water reclamation facility and replacement of a failing generator transfer switch. After the questions, the committee voted to approve the consent items and the chair closed the consent calendar.

The meeting proceeded to a presentation on snow removal operations. The consent approvals are procedural actions; no further committee votes on these items were recorded at the meeting.