Scott City officials give approval to contract for removing sludge

The Scott City Council unanimously approved a contract for sludge removal from the Old Illmo lagoon Monday night.

Heartland Application and Equipment Sales Inc. will perform the removal of the sludge and demolition of lagoon levees. The process is being performed under mandate from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which has ordered the lagoon closed by Dec. 31.

The contract price for the closure will be $151,449 or less, depending on certain factors for the cost of the job.

The contract approved by council members was a revision of the original draft, with added provisions that the city provide access to the lagoon for hauling equipment, for the job to be bid using prevailing wage, for the contractor not be held responsible for not meeting the timeline if there is third-party interference in the work and for the city to pay 40 percent of the project cost when the project is halfway completed.

Paying prevailing wage will raise labor costs, said city administrator Ron Eskew, but will be offset by savings in the cost of stockpiling sludge. Jeff Limbaugh with Heartland Application has indicated that some sludge can be taken directly to farm fields, where earlier estimates said some would have to be stockpiled.

The stockpiling issue had caused estimates on the lagoon closure to jump from the originally budgeted $131,000 to about $160,000 before the city received project bids.

In other action:

* The city council unanimously approved converting the current public works shed at 1601 Fornfelt to a fire station dependent upon insulating the building. The building will be insulated by the fire department using donated materials in a move to save money on utility bills. The move won't be complete until winter.

* A public hearing was scheduled for Sept. 6 for the annual tax rate review.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182