By Gail Peckler-Dziki
Correspondent
The Paddock Lake Village board held a special meeting on Sept. 14 to approve Resolution R11-10, a $10,195,208 financial assistance agreement to finance the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) required sewer plant rebuild.
Included in that amount is $500,000 of work already done. That work includes the relining of sewer lines and the collection system.
One important piece of the project, the installation of an electronically controlled gate to increase security at the public works/water treatment plant complex. The complex in fenced, but the gate was not secure. “The park is nearby and we did have kids wandering into the area. We are concerned for their safety, but also concerned about preventing vandalism,” he explained.
The village spent just over $8,000 for an electric fence with controllers that can be programmed for specific personnel. This way the village will know who goes in, who comes out and at what times. Popanda said that normally the project would have cost about $1,400.
The new gate allows the village to program controllers to identify any construction workers who are on the premises during the water treatment plant rebuild. Popanda says this gives the village a greater degree of control over the project.
The resolution was necessary for make sure that Paddock
Lake was eligible to receive a clean water grant of over $850,000, which will be deducted from the $10.1 million loan from the state trust fund. The deadline for closing on the loan to meet DNR clean water fund requirements was Sept. 28.
The DNR and the state of Wisconsin expect that water treatment plants be rebuilt every 25 years, regardless of capacity ability. Treatment plants wear out and technology advances. And the DNR becomes more restrictive on the water that is discharged from the plant.
Right now, the capacity for the water treatment plant is 500,000 a day. On a normal day, the plant operates at one-third to one-half capacity. During a severe weather event, that can spike up to 1.5 million gallons a day. Since the sewer lines have been relined and manhole covers been sealed, Paddock Lake village administrator Tim Popanda said he expects spike not to be quite so high.
When the rebuild is done, capacity will be increased to 850,000 gallons a day, in addition to meeting new DNR requirements.
Popanda said that C. E. Smith from Appleton Wisconsin was the lowest qualified bidder. The company will start mobilization next week, moving in equipment, construction trailers and materials. Ground should be broken by the first or second week in October and the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013.