Gainesboro Aldermen approved a bid to install new water line along North Murray Street Thursday night.
The $527,000 project includes some 22-hundred linear feet. Aldermen initially had concerns about the low bidder, as the town’s engineering firm has never worked with the contractor before. Consultant Zeda Hillis said she has talked with the contractor’s references and said the contractor is credible.
“They checked out perfectly well with all other recommendations and said they are very capable of doing this job and that they have done a lot larger projects,” Hillis said. “Cleary Construction one of the owners Mr. Cleary said that he had used them as a sub and preferred to use them on all of his projects and if they had any problems he would come down and do it for them or help them.”
The project will connect the intake station to the site of the new Water Treatment Plant. Hillis said the waterline project will use ARP funds the that town must spend by 2026.
“This is getting you started in the process of spending down that ARP grant money so that we don’t lose it,” Hillis said. “Then we will do additional bids once we do the intake and we start on the plant. I mean your money will be spent by the deadline cause we don’t want to jeopardize losing anything but this was one thing to get us started. It has to be done so this was one phase of that that we could to start spending down your ARP money.”
Hillis said the contractor will not begin on the waterline project until a start date is set during a pre-construction meeting. Hillis said the contractor will have 180 days to complete the project.
Hillis said the project would prefer to start towards the intake but cannot as the town is still waiting to receive a CORE permit from the United States Army Corps of Engineers for repairs of the intake station.
Aldermen Deborah Whitaker asked Hillis when the town might receive the CORE permit for the intake station. Hillis said they have not heard back about the permit.
“They go silent for so long and he will make phone calls and leave messages,” Hillis said. “I mean that permit was submitted well over a year ago.”
Hillis said there is a big concern as the intake tank is in desperate need of repair. Hillis said after an inspection she was told that if the intake was not repaired the town could potentially lose the tank.
In other business, the board approved donating $500 to the Share to Care Foundation and road closures for the Stuff The Bus event later this summer.
The board tabled a decision to purchase two computer workstations at the cost of $6,538. Town Clerk Lisa Dodson said ever since getting a new payroll software that installed several security features the computers have been slow. Mayor Lloyd Williams said the town may not have the budget to purchase the workstations.
“I don’t money is getting tight,” Williams said. “So I mean that’s what we are spending. Everyone needs new equipment but it comes to a point time you know $6,000 in our budget is more than $6,000 county budget. I mean we just only got that much money now.”
The board will look to see if they can piggyback with another county on a state contract for the workstations.
The board approved the installation of a mixer for the Smith Water Tank located on Herman Smith Lane. Hillis said the mixer helps improve water quality in the tank. the mixer will cost the town an estimated $24,000.
