City lift stations will be upgraded

Two Portland lift stations will be upgraded.

Portland Board of Works on Thursday approved the installation of new control panels for the city’s Charles Street and Jay County High School lift stations.

Portland wastewater superintendent Brad Clayton recommended utilizing 4TC Corporation of rural Portland for the work. The company’s quotes came in at $9,390 for the Charles Street lift station and $1,360 for the high school lift station.

The work at the Charles Street site is more extensive because it includes all new equipment. 4TC will install two motor starters for pumps, a 60-amp main breaker and two 30-amp breakers for short-circuit protection as well as other equipment and build a vented enclosure for the equipment.

The project at the high school lift station involves modifying controls, installing a meter and cleaning and repairing the enclosure.

Clayton said he recommended 4TC in part because the company has handled work on other lift station control panels and he would like to keep them uniform throughout the city. Board of works members Jerry Leonhard, Steve McIntosh and Portland Mayor John Boggs unanimously approved his recommendation.

Also Wednesday, the board acknowledged a project that called for the construction of a trail from the Weiler-Wilson Park/Hudson Family Park bridge to Jay-Randolph Developmental Services has been canceled.

The city had been awarded a $168,000 Department of Natural Resources grant toward the proposed project — the trail would have run from the bridge east behind Portland Water Park and East Elementary School to Jay-Randolph Developmental Services — in 2018. The grant was set to expire next year.

Jay County Trails Club members had visited city council and park board meetings last month to advocate for the project. John Moore of the trails club said at the park board meeting that he believed between the grant, the required local match and other fundraising there would be no additional cost to the city.

On Thursday, Boggs said the city was unable to come to an agreement with the trails club on the project.

City officials had previously expressed concerns about the location of the trail, noting that the street and parks department stores stone and other materials in the proposed path of the trail.

“It was underfunded and ill-designed,” said Boggs. “We couldn’t come to an agreement on it, so we just decided to give the money back.

“I hate to give money back but don’t want to take money and then not be able to execute it, too.”

In other business, the board:

•Approved a renewed contract with Indiana Department of Transportation for sweeping state and U.S. highways in the city. Portland is responsible for sweeping 6.4 miles of highway at least twice a year and is reimbursed by the state for the work.