Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Funds lacking for project

It appears as though the City of Prescott will be a little short when it comes to paying for the upgrades to the water system.

James Rice, with NRS Engineering, spoke to the Prescott City Council at its regular monthly meeting Monday, Jan. 21, telling the aldermen the low bidder on the project was Peck Construction of Bossier City, La. at $1,228,417.

However, the bond issue passed by the council totals $1,207,341.46,with $1,102,522.50 available for the project, as funds have to be placed in a debt service reserve account, while the underwriter must be paid, along with the cost of issuance.

The debt service reserve is $49,040, while the underwriter's discount is $33,137.50 and the cost of issuance is $20,300.

The bid, though, includes a number of deductive alternates, which can be used to reduce the cost of the project.

One of these alternates, Rice said, was reducing the size of the clearwell from 1.5 million gallons to a capacity of one million gallons. This would save $50,000, but wouldn't be worth the loss of the extra capacity, he added.

The other deductive alternates, he said, would be to delete the chlorine solution line and potable water line, along with all chlorination equipment and a chlorination building, deleting the meter vault, meter mag and remote recorder and taking pumps P101 and P102 out of the bid. The deletion of these items would reduce the bid price by $173,000.

This would make the bid price $1,055,417.

The deductive alternates, he said, were scheduled for phase II of the project, but will cost more to add later on.

Rice said because of the condition of the chlorination process at the water plant now, it needs to be left in. Currently the chlorination is done inside the building and needs to be done outside.

The two pumps could be deleted, with work done on the pumps the city has on site to keep them operational. However, he said, these pumps are 16-years-old.

Perry Nelson, water superintendent, said the clearwell and generators are a must, especially after the winter of 2001.

Nelson said the original plans were to use high service pumps the city has and move them to the clearwell, but the city needs to get the chlorination equipment out of the building to be safe.

"It's all needed," he said. "We can't put it off many years."

City accountant Carl Dalrymple said he didn't know if there was enough money in the city's depreciation fund to cover the extra costs, or if the bond issue would make allowances for the money to be used in such a way.

Rice simply said the city will be short $200,000 if the project is done with no deductive alternates used.

Dalrymple said Glenn Vasser, city attorney, could check and see if the depreciation money could be used in conjunction with the bond issue.

The bid, Rice said, is good for 90 days.

The council agreed to table taking any action on the matter at this time. Vasser will check on the legality of using depreciation money with the bond issue, while Dalrymple will see if there's enough in the depreciation account to cover the shortfall.

The council will address the issue again at its February meeting.