And the winner is...

They will be our general contractor
for the future WWTP

 As I'm sure you're aware, the City of Chetek is at the beginning of a
major municipal project. Our current waste water treatment plant (WWTP), though continuing to function with passing grades from the state, no longer can meet the new water quality standards set by the DNR. No upgrade to our current system will do. There is no software program that we can download (especially because the technology we're running on is from the 1980s). Nope. We got to start from scratch. And, of course, these things aren't cheap to design or build.

Last Tuesday night in council chambers the common council of the City of Chetek officially awarded the bid to Market & Johnson of Stillwater, Minnesota to be the general contractor for our new waste water treatment plant. Construction will begin as soon as the snow goes.

They did that

You may have heard of them as they were the prime movers behind the remodeling of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, the new transit facility and the Children's Museum, all of Eau Claire. On January 19, in what was described to us as a competitive bidding process, the envelopes were opened and of the four general contractors they had the low bid (and by USDA rules a municipality that receives USDA funding has to take the low bid).

Not a long commute for these guys

What's even more gratifying to learn is that many of the sub-
contractors, who will be doing the lion's share of the work, are local including Stout Construction (who will be handling all the earthwork), Huff Concrete of Chippewa Falls, B&B Electric of Eau Claire and J.F. Ahern of Menomonie. Not only is it great to employ local workers it also helps in the event of a hiccup in the project to not have to wait to hear from “headquarters” a state or two away.

The Roberts' plant was real
intriguing

We'll be using a system akin
to what Bloomer is using

This process towards a new WWTP actually began back a few years ago when the DNR informed us that essentially we were on the clock to construct a new plant. Over the last few years, the council has made a few field trips to neighboring communities to inspect their plants (specifically Roberts and Bloomer) before settling on a sequencing batch reactor model (combined with a reactive sand filter) much like our neighbors down the road from us in Bloomer use.

Tia was the 2022 American Council
of Engineering Companies (ACEC)
of Wisconsin
Young Professional of the Year recipient

That was 2021. It takes time to design and engineer these kinds of projects and now that we've reached this stage in the process a year and a half later our costs have gone up. At our meeting last week, Tia McCarthy of CBS₂ , the engineer overseeing the project, carefully walked us through from where we've been and brought us up to where we are now. In 2021, our estimated costs of design and construction was $20.6 million dollars (a little over half of which will be paid by the USDA). Today this same project will run just shy of $25 million or a difference of $4.2 million from the original estimate. What gives? Simple. Inflation and economic forces outside our control. Them's the breaks.

Here were the principal bidders

Here's the fine print

We've already begun the process of applying for additional grant and/or low interest loan money to cover the $4.2 million. As soon as the snow field in the south industrial park evaporates come March or April, expect to see the blue trucks of Stout Construction begin to shape and level and move earth making way for the plant that has to be operational come November 2024. Make sure to look either at the City of Chetek's or Jeff Martin, Mayor's FB pages for updates and pictures as we slow-walk through from first turned dirt to ceremonial “first flush” toward the end of next year.

Coming soon to an industrial park near you