Council OKs equipment purchases, project changes

Published 9:55 am Wednesday, June 19, 2024

The city of Meridian will purchase several new pieces of equipment and made changes to several wastewater projects after the Meridian City Council authorized the actions in its Tuesday meeting.

The council approved the purchase of a vacuum/hydro extractor, an all-in-one pothole patcher, two service trucks with cranes and a telehandler for Meridian Public Works as well as seven police chargers for Meridian Police Department.

Public Works Director David Hodge said the vacuum/hydro extractor is both an excavator an a vacuum truck that will allow the freshwater department to be more precise and efficient when it needs to make repairs. The piece of equipment uses a water jet and suction to dig around existing utilities, which will save city crews a lot of time and energy.

“We can just get a lot more done with a piece of equipment like this,” he said.

The vacuum/hydro extractor is quoted at $475,500 and is expected to take 120 to 150 days to arrive. Due to the lead time in receiving the truck, the payment for it will likely not be made until the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. The funds, however, are in this year’s budget and will not need to be included in upcoming budget discussions.

The all-in-one pot hole patcher is also destined for the water department, Hodge said, where it will be used to repair streets after crews perform repairs. The machine has several different features including a place to keep asphalt at the proper temperature, a packing machine to compress the asphalt and a jackhammer to make precise cuts and trim edges, he said.

Meridian’s current pot hole patcher is the property of the streets department, and water department crews must either ask streets to patch their work areas or use a dump truck and manual, gas-powered compactors to bring asphalt from the plant and pack it in place.

The pot hole patcher is quoted at $332,800.

Public works is also purchasing two service trucks with cranes at a cost of $351,353.60 to replace its current vehicles that are getting old. The vehicles are used by wastewater crews to perform maintenance on lift stations throughout the city, Hodge said.

Also going to water is the telehandler at a cost of $67,500. Hodge said the machine, which is similar to a forklift but with additional features, will be used at the water plants. The machine will help workers move chemicals and other items that are too heavy to move by hand.

Council members also approved the purchase of seven new Dodge Chargers from Kirk Auto World at a cost of $262,500 for Meridian Police Department. The department has been in need of new vehicles for some time and hopes to take possession of the vehicles as soon as possible.

Projects

On the project side, the City Council approved several changes to ongoing projects as new information has come to light. The council Tuesday approved a change order in its annual sanitary and storm sewer rehabilitation contract with Hemphill Construction at a cost of $2,355,000.

Jason Gault, of Kimley-Horn, an engineering firm helping the city with its sewer rehabilitation efforts, said the change order is aimed at encumbering all of the city’s allocation of money from the American Rescue Plan Act. Meridian received $8.9 million in federal ARPA funds and was awarded a state match to bring the total to approximately $17.8 million. Under ARPA guidelines, the funds must be encumbered by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.

The council previously authorized the ARPA dollars to be spent on projects relating to the city’s federal consent decree regarding its dilapidated sewer system.

Three projects were chosen to be covered by ARPA money, Gault said, and the $2,355,000 is what is left over after funding for those projects has been allocated. The change to the contract with Hemphill, he said, is an effort to encumber the remaining ARPA funds so the city does not have to give the money back at the end of the year.

Council members also approved a change order to an ongoing project at the south wastewater treatment plant at a cost of $168,044.33. The city is currently working to update the plant and keep it operating within the legal limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The initial project, which was awarded to Hemphill Construction in September 2023, came in at approximately $5.6 million.

James Lawson, of Neel-Schaffer Inc., which is overseeing the project, said the change order isn’t one specific item but a lot of smaller issues rolled together. As work to upgrade the plant is ongoing, crews have identified parts that lack compatibility, are no longer supported, no longer align with best practices and more.

The problems, Lawson said, are not things that could have been known before beginning the project and were only discovered as work on the plant was done.

In other business, the council also awarded a project to replace the roof on the public works garage to Norman Roofing at a cost of $118,300.

Contributions

As summer arrives, the City Council is set to begin the process of crafting a budget for the 2025 fiscal year, and Councilman Joe Norwood Jr., who serves as council president, said he wants to remind local organizations and nonprofits the deadline to apply for contributions is July 1.

Each year the council sets aside funding for charitable contributions and divides it up among eligible nonprofits and groups. The application process is used to both keep track of individual organizations’ requests as well as provide needed information to verify the council can legally make a donation to a group.

Nonprofits interested in applying for contributions from the City Council can contact the clerk of council at 601-485-1959.