Marion looks to rebuild, replace lift station pump

Published 8:45 am Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Marion aldermen on Tuesday acted on a recommendation from Town Engineer Shawn Miles to rebuild one of the pumps in its main lift station after it stopped working.

Miles said the pump is one of two 100 horsepower pumps in the town’s main lift station moving wastewater thorough the sewer system. Both pumps, he said, are more than 15 years old and have already been rebuilt once before.

“We rebuilt both of them two, three years ago,” he said.

Both pumps will eventually need to be replaced, Miles said, but buying one new will cost about $57,000 and take roughly 18 weeks to arrive. That is too long for the lift station to run with a pump down, he said, so the decision was made to move forward with the rebuild.

Rebuilding the pump is expected to take approximately four weeks, Miles said. The cost is $25,876.

“We just kind of made the executive decision we’ll rebuild this one and then put in the plans to buy a new pump, hopefully with these ARPA funds we’ve got,” he said.

Marion received $300,000 for its allocation of American Rescue Plan Act funding, which was matched 2-to-1 by the state for a total of $900,000. The town intends to spend the funds on sewer rehabilitation and improvement projects.

With the purchase of a new pump, Miles said the town will have a spare that it can use if one pump goes down. That will give the town more options as it will no longer have an immediate need to make repairs.

“If one goes out, we’ll have time to make a decision,” he said.

While expensive, Miles said the lift station pumps have held up remarkably well with fewer issues than expected from equipment that old. Looking to the future, Miles said the town can also consider putting money aside to purchase a second new pump so both of the lift station’s pumps are new.

In other business, Mayor Larry Gill asked aldermen to consider amending their July 3 authorization to purchase a 2023 Dodge Charger to allow for a second Charger to be bought as well. The vehicle is needed, Gill said, and the additional cost would only add about $300 to the monthly payment.

The payments, Gill said, would rise from about $840 per month to $1,100 per month.

Aldermen agreed to consider the request and revisit it at a future meeting. The board also plans to consider surplusing some of the town’s older vehicles so they can be sold.