Reluctant council OKs digester contract
It took a while. But after more than an hour of discussion on Tuesday, the Kalispell City Council voted to award an $863,188 contract for Swank Enterprises to renovate the wastewater treatment plant’s primary digester.
The project’s cost grew by nearly $200,000 from initial cost estimates. That caused some sticker shock, but with extra work added in during final engineering, the bid was right in line with final cost estimates.
Mayor Tammi Fisher complained that the City Council was not kept in the loop about the growing scope of work and cost estimates, but supported the contract award. “For the next project I would like to see that,” she said about a need for better communication between staff and council.
The only other bid was submitted by Sletten Construction. It was for $1.245 million. The large difference between the bids fueled numerous questions by council members.
Hired to engineer and oversee the primary digester project, Craig Caprara of HDR Engineering said he also has some questions to go over with Swank Enterprises before a contract is finalized some time in the next 60 days.
One of the biggest cost differences between the two bids was related to internal coatings for the concrete digester tank — an issue Caprara said he will work through to make sure that Swank Enterprises intends to stand by its bid and that proper coatings were factored into it.
“If you give staff the OK to award the contract to Swank, all that does is put them on notice that they need to submit bonds and insurance and provide all that stuff to our satisfaction, and sign that they will do the project at that price,” Caprara said.
Afraid of the cost overruns and change orders that plagued projects such as Kalispell City Hall, several council members could not swallow the difference between the bids and the unresolved question about tank coatings. Jeff Zauner, Tim Kluesner and Phil Guiffrida III voted against awarding the contract.
“I can’t support this motion. There are too many questions,” Zauner said.
Guiffrida agreed. “I can’t look my constituents in the face and say I can approve this knowing there are questions I have that are not answered and questions the engineer has that aren’t answered. I can’t do that with a clear conscience,” he said.
The other council members were not so concerned and saw no reason to delay awarding the contract.
“I think a safety for us is the fact that the engineering firm will review this with the apparent low bidder, and the low bidder has the option to back out if he’s not comfortable,” council member Wayne Saverud said. “Based on the fact that the apparent low bid is close to final estimates, and that the process will let the low bidder reconsider his commitment, I’m very comfortable with this.”
The primary digesteris part of the wastewater treatment plant’s solids-reduction process. Inside the sealed, 50-by-32-foot concrete tank, microbes digest solids sent over from the plant’s clarifiers and fermenters. That process generates methane gas captured to heat the digester, but the corrosive gas has eaten away at the tank’s internal coating and concrete lid.
One possible concern is that the methane has damaged the tank’s concrete more than expected. That won’t be known until work gets under way.
The proposed project would replace the digester’s internal coating and concrete lid, mixer and foam separator. It’s expected to take about six months to complete. Kalispell plans to borrow money from a state revolving loan fund to pay for the construction work, engineering inspection, some borrowing costs and about 15 percent contingency.
Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.