Accepts TIB street grant

PATEROS – City council members at their regular monthly meeting, Monday, Dec. 17, voted to authorize the city engineer to proceed with a call for bids for construction of the downtown Well 4 Pump Station. Ben Varela of Varela Associates in Spokane updated council members with a 25-page summary of the design and construction documents and said that 90 percent of that phase is complete.

Varela said his team has a goal to pull all the final structural, landscape, elements of the project together by January 13, 2019.

There’s a lot of stuff we still have to coordinate,” said Varela of the final fine-tuning. “The last 10 percent takes 90 percent of the effort.”

Varela said that while he is awaiting final figures from his structural, landscape and electrical teams he estimated that the total cost of the project will range from $1.5 to $1.8 million dollars. He noted that the price tag is higher than originally expected but that his company allowed for that contingency.

“We took the project package costs and added 30 percent because we were seeing all these construction costs explode – and they have,” said Varela. “On the flip side, we didn’t do a third well and pump house, and we thought we’d have to. We have plenty of good water right now.”

The state Legislature awarded the city two direct appropriations to cover the costs of the pump station and a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hazard mitigation grant covered the generators.

The target date for completion of the Well 4 Pump Station is by Apple Pie Jamboree time next July. City Administrator Jord Wilson said some related work like installation of fire hydrants and distribution loops will remain but expects the project to wind up later in 2019.

In other business council members approved the terms of a $62,906 grant from the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) for seal coating some city street surfaces.

Wilson clarified that the project will include I Street from Stadium Way to North Street, and all of North Street down to U.S. 97.

Wilson reported on winterization tasks that include readying the snow plow fleet, draining leaky fire hydrants, insulating vulnerable meters, checking heat lamps and tape, and stabilizing small engines, among other cost-saving measures.

City officials completed two applications with the Economic Development District (EDD) for the Mail Rehabilitation Project and the Starr Road Business Development Project.

Wilson and mayor Carlene Anders have been meeting with Nancy Nash of the Okanogan County office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other stakeholders about housing solutions in the city. Last October the 16-unit Pateros Garden Apartments, a rent-subsidized complex of HUD Section 8 housing reverted to market value rents and will transition to the higher costs as leases of current occupants expire.

Kris Erlandsen, Westco, and Pateros Trailer Court, the three principles involved in the planned development of the Pateros Trailer Court on Pederson Road, continue work on a February 2019 completion date for the planned development.

The Memorial Park restroom was scheduled for completion by Dec. 27. KRCI contractors of Wenatchee who installed the new Peninsula Park restroom last November, took advantage of favorable weather to pour the concrete sidewalk in front of the structure.

The city was recognized with a safety award from the Risk Management Assessment Agency for its work to minimize exposure to everyday risks that municipalities face.

The next meeting of the city council will be at 6 p.m., January 22, 2019.