Engineer hired for sewer extension project (07/24/06)

A hotel project planned north of Portland is one step closer to getting connected to city utilities.

Members of a local board voted Friday morning to hire a Muncie man to do the engineering work to extend a city sewer line to the site of the proposed Holiday Inn Express.

The Portland Board of Works voted to pay Gene Amlin, a retired engineer, and his partner Don Hill, Marion, a total of $18,100 to do the engineering work.

Before the vote, Mayor Bruce Hosier said, "We're really, really pleased with (Amlin's) estimate. We're going to have to hire an engineer, and (Amlin's) price is very reasonable."

The city received no other quotes for the engineering work, Hosier said after the meeting. However, Amlin did predict that hiring an engineering firm to do the same work would cost about $50,000, he said.

Amlin presented board members two possible routes for the sewer line extension. One would run north along the east side of U.S. 27 and the other would go east along county road 100 North, then north along the west side of the XPLEX Extreme Competition Park property to the hotel site.

Amlin said the route along county road 100 North would cost $40,000 to $50,000 less because construction workers would not have to bore under the road.

To install a line along U.S. 27, workers would have to bore under the highway in two places, plus dig through several driveways and other paved areas.

"This is the best way to go," Amlin said of the route along county road 100 North.

In June, board members gave tentative approval to an agreement between the hotel's developer, Scott Daniels, and the city for sharing the cost of extending city utilities to the site of the planned 73-room hotel.

After Friday's meeting, Amlin said he expects his work, which he plans to begin right away, to take several months to complete. Extending the line could take two to three months, he said.

Also Friday, the board voted to purchase two large pumps from H.P. Thompson of Indianapolis at a cost of $10,327 for the Gerber lift station.

Bob Brelsford, superintendent of the city's wastewater treatment plant, said the pumps are needed to handle a greater capacity. A 24-inch gravity sewer line recently was connected to the lift station, which is located near the new strip mall, to reduce the amount of sewage handled by the north lift station located along Industrial Park Drive.

The pumps currently used in the Gerber station cannot keep up with the extra volume and a portable pump is being used to help out, Brelsford said.

It could take six to eight weeks for the new pumps to be delivered, he said.

In other business, board members voted to have Hosier sign paperwork for a $50,000 Brownfields Stipulated Assessment Grant the city recently was awarded through the Indiana Finance Authority.

Hosier told the board that the funds will be used to assess the site of the former hatchery building on South Wayne Street, and a former O-Cedar Vining building on South Middle Street. City officials hope to determine what needs to be done to the former factory building to make it marketable, he said.

The grant funds can be used to conduct soil sampling, ground water sampling and to look for harmful materials such as asbestos, Sara Westrick, financial resources coordinator for the Indiana Brownfields program, said earlier this week.

The hatchery building was razed in the fall of 2005. The entrance to the new Hudson Family Park is being constructed near where the building stood.

Hosier explained that the assessment work is done, then the bills are submitted for reimbursement.[[In-content Ad]]