The Lamar City Council on Dec. 2 opened a public hearing on financing Phase 2 of a wastewater industrial pretreatment facility and moved forward with both the bond authorization and a construction contract amendment.

At the hearing, the mayor said the city plans to issue a sewer revenue bond “not to exceed principal amount of $45,700,000” to fund the project and asked for written or oral comments; no members of the public offered comment. Council later adopted Resolution 25-58 approving a sewer revenue loan agreement in a principal amount not to exceed $45,700,000.

Council also considered Amendment No. 2 to the professional services agreement with engineering firm Bolton & Menk, Inc. Council packet materials initially listed a $3,073,000 figure (the total of the original agreement plus prior amendments), prompting a councilmember to point out that Amendment No. 2 itself is for $2,080,000 and that is the figure being approved. A motion to approve Amendment No. 2 with a not-to-exceed fee of $2,080,000 was seconded and carried.

Doug (staff member) described the project phasing for the public record: "Phase 1 was going to be a force main from North ice cream out to our current old plant," he said, adding that Phase 2 involves work at the old plant to separate industrial flows that will then be routed to a new pretreatment facility with anaerobic lagoons to treat high-strength industrial waste. "Then phase 3 is taking that and incorporating all the residential waste into a new facility to meet the new limits," he said, explaining treated effluent will run through a UV system before discharge to the Floyd River.

City administration said the project will be funded with the sewer revenue bond and that industrial users will reimburse the city for bond repayment. The council did not receive any opposing public comment during the hearing.

Next steps: the resolution was adopted and the amendment approved; staff and Bolton & Menk will proceed with construction-phase services under the $2,080,000 amendment. Additional scheduling, contract details and milestone dates were not specified in the meeting record.