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Medford committee recommends hiring SEH for wastewater lift station and plant upgrades
Summary
The Committee of the Whole recommended that City Council approve hiring SEH to design and administer bidding and loans for an Industrial lift station and wastewater treatment-plant upgrades, funded from wastewater reserves and the DNR Clean Water Fund Loan Program.
The City of Medford Committee of the Whole on Feb. 9 recommended that the Common Council approve hiring SEH to design and administer bidding and loan paperwork for upgrades at the Industrial lift station and the municipal wastewater treatment plant.
Wastewater Superintendent Alex Zenner told the Committee the Industrial lift station — at Industrial Drive and Whelen Avenue — currently handles roughly one-third of the city’s sewer flow and will receive additional flow when Stetsonville connects to Medford’s system. Zenner said the lift station, built in the early 1970s, needs modernization and that staff plans to reuse existing electronic controls where possible, update pumps as needed and install a natural-gas generator to increase reliability. "We will be applying for clean water funding from the DNR. This is a loan and principal forgiveness program that the DNR offers; 2027 will be the last year of principal forgiveness," Zenner said.
Committee materials and staff briefings described a parallel package of treatment-plant work: filter-building updates, post-aeration upgrades to meet future permit limits, replacement of UV bulbs that sterilize effluent, and repairs to lab and truck-garage plumbing and heating where buried piping and corrosion have caused failures. The clarifiers have not been updated since the 1980s, staff said, and changes in discharge limits require additional processes.
Zenner said money for the Industrial lift station contract would come from Wastewater reserve funds, while treatment-plant work would be pursued through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' Clean Water Fund Loan Program, which combines loans with principal forgiveness opportunities through program deadlines.
Laura Holmes moved and Christine Weix seconded a motion to recommend that Council approve wastewater engineering services for the Industrial lift station and treatment plant and to fund the lift station from wastewater reserves and the treatment-plant work through the Clean Water Fund Loan Program. The motion carried unanimously.
The matter will go to the Common Council for final approval; the Committee did not take the final contract vote.
