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Water-intake delays push park power work sooner, public works engineer says
Summary
Public works engineer Damon Johnson told the council that repeated river-level rises have filled the intake coffer and cost roughly a month of work; to avoid further delays, the city will move overhead power feeding the park underground sooner than planned, a change that will raise costs.
Public works engineer Damon Johnson updated the Batesville City Council on work at the Hawkins Street drainage and the municipal water plant, saying river-level fluctuations have repeatedly forced crews to pause intake work.
Johnson said crews are replacing an undersized drainage structure on Hawkins with a new box culvert and that the intake coffer for the water plant has filled several times after heavy rains. "They're probably losing lost about a month of work just because of the weather," he said, noting each flooding event requires pumping out the coffer and waiting for dry conditions.
He said the water-plant project is being staged: crews will build the first half, demolish older components and then build the second half. Johnson also said the city is accelerating work to put overhead power lines feeding the park intake underground so Clark (the park contractor) can begin constructing a splash pad and other amenities without delay. He said the earlier-than-planned undergrounding will add cost but is cheaper than delaying the parks contractor.
Johnson reported the parks project otherwise is moving forward and said contractors from Entergy (recorded in the transcript as "Entrogy") were on site to begin conduit work unrelated to the intake delays.
The council did not vote on project scope or funding during the update; the mayor indicated the perpetual fund will be used for selected community-center and park items discussed later in the meeting.
