Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Sewer Pumps Discussed

Charles Summerford kicked off the meeting of the Gurdon Water and Sewer Commission early this month.

In fact, he began giving members of the panel information about the new sewer pump station before the meeting was called to order.

He told them what was available on the market today, showing them photos of the different pumps and telling of the specifications and designs of each.

There were two pumps he primarily talked about though, the Smith-Loveless, and the Fairbanks-Morris models. Both he said were similar in design and either would do the job well.

The job to be done is replacing the sewer pump station Bowen Hill Road, which has basically worn out.

However, he pointed out the board would have to get bids before making a decision on which type of station to go with.

The commission heard of bids to repair the water tank on 10th Street. The low bid was submitted by a Memphis-based company at $48,500. The high bid was $56,250.

Summerford said this may appear as a big difference on pricing, but it really isn't because the bids were divided differently.

For the leak, Summerford suggested, with the board agreeing, to have the company repair it on a cost plus percentage fee. This, he said, is normally 20 percent more than the actual cost of making the repair.

The tank, though, will be grit blasted on the inside to near white metal and get two coats of epoxy paint at a minimum of 10 mill thick.

The interior repair, Summerford said, should have a 20 year lifespan.

Harold Hurst, department manager, said there is no state law requiring the obtaining of bids for a new pump station, but the city does have ordinances concerning the taking of bids.

Because of this, the department will have to take bids, instead of contacting companies and taking the lowest price.

By ordinance, any purchase made by a governing body in Gurdon of $5,000 or more, must go through the bid process.

The topic then turned to the Gurdon Rural Water Project. The project, Summerford said, was supposed to be finished by Nov. 1997, but wasn't in service until Feb. 25, 1998.

He said the project was 107 days overdue when it was substantially completed. This meant the system was in and people were getting water, but the clean up work had not been done.

Clean up, Summerford said, has taken a year, but is nearing completion as well.

He suggested penalizing the contractor at half the overdue time at a rate of $400 per day. This would amount to $20,000 to $25,000.

The project engineer, Summerford, would be paid at $30 per hour for his services on the job and is expected to receive $13,180.

The contractor in this case, G&S Trenching, now defunct, is still due about $40,000 under its contract. However, Summerford said, the amount of penalty and engineering fees can be taken from this amount before the contractor is paid.

When asked about getting water to the Greenville area, Summerford said the Arkansas Economic Development Council won't allow funds from the Gurdon project to be used for Greenville under the same contract.

However, he pointed out, the city can get bids for a new project to provide water to Greenville area residents under a new contract and use the funds from the Gurdon project in this manner.

Summerford said it would cost about $41,000 to run water lines to the Greenville area.

The commission, after looking at prices of air compressors, agreed to purchase the 1994 model G&S Trenching had for $6,000. This compressor is an Ingersoll-Rand with a John Deere engine and cost $11,000 new.

A similar compressor, Hurst said, with more hours use on it than the one purchased from G&S was being sold for $8,000.

The final order of business done by the commission was to give all employees their Christmas bonus.

Each worker with the department will receive 10 percent of their monthly salary as a bonus.