La Cygne moves ahead on multi‑phase water‑plant upgrade, approves temporary notes

The La Cygne City Council approved progress payments and financing steps this year to keep a multi‑phase water‑treatment upgrade on track.

Public Works Superintendent George Craig told the council that contractors have completed much of the new metal building and filter work and that contractors are finishing the plumbing and electrical elements. The council approved SMI‑CO requests for work on Phase 2 and Phase 3 (building and mechanical) pending the engineer’s sign‑offs. To cover a roughly $140,000 gap to finish Phases 2 and 3, the council authorized temporary notes at 3.75 percent from Labette Bank by ordinance, enabling the city to complete the project without delaying work into the next construction season.

Why it matters: The upgrades reconfigure filter media, improve backwash flow and plant reliability, and are intended to increase available treatment capacity for the summer demand spike. The council also moved to address an operational shortcoming: settling time in the plant’s decant/backwash lagoons has fallen as backwash frequency rose. The council authorized Ponzer‑Youngquist to study the lagoons and propose fixes (approved for up to $4,500) and awarded a contract for sandblasting and coatings on the two aging clarifiers to Utility Service Company ($47,270) with a plan to have city crews perform welding where possible. Mayor Sam Barber asked the public‑works crew to be ready for a one‑time plant shutdown only after the remaining valves and electrical work are completed so the plant outage can be minimized.

"Job well done," Mayor Barber asked staff to pass along at a December meeting after the first filter phase was brought online; council members cited the work as essential to the city’s ability to meet peak summer demand and to avoid emergency restrictions.