Edgar sewer plant bids pending
Wisconsin DNR is reviewing Cooper Engineering blueprints
Engineer Gary Strand, Cooper Engineering, Rice Lake, told the Edgar Village Board on Monday that he doubts the village will bid out a major wastewater treatment plant reconstruction project this spring, but that is a good thing. He said he will feel more confident bidding the plant work this summer after price volatility in construction materials and hardware shakes out.
Strand said prices for building supplies were currently on a roller-coaster and that contractors were building in larger margins in their bids because they had trouble predicting their costs.
He said he expects building prices to stabilize by this summer, when, possibly, the village could send wastewater treatment plans out to bid.
Strand said plans for the plant are currently being reviewed by the Department of Natural Resources, but he said he has no idea when they might be approved.
“I am not hopeful we will get a response very fast,” Strand said. “There is no point in pushing the DNR.”
Strand told village board members that Wisconsin villages not unlike Edgar were in the process of rebuilding their sewage treatment plant at costs exceeding $20 million. He told board members that they made an “excellent choice” to rebuild their sewage treatment plant at an estimated price of $6.6 million.
“I think it will be an excellent plant,” he said.
USDA will furnish the village with a $1.5 million grant to pay for the plant project. The balance of the work will be paid for with a $4.8 million loan.
In other village board business:
n Board members told village resident Roger Ballerstein he would not be able to cut off half the top of a large, hard maple tree located on the Second Street boulevard because, they said, it would kill the tree. They based their decision on the judgment of D’ee Tree Service, Edgar, a professional tree service.
Ballerstein said the tree, which lost some roots due to a construction project, was leaning more and more each year. He said cutting off much of the tree’s top was needed to stabilize the tree and save it from a wind storm. The resident said he did not want to have to replace the tree at what he said would be a cost as high as $2,000.
Edgar village ordinances require homeowners to trim trees in the village right of way boulevards but there are limits to how much of a tree can be cut. It is the resident’s responsibility to replace a dead or downed tree. The replacement must have a two-inch trunk at chest high. The village assists residents with tree maintenance and split the cost of trimming Ballerstein’s trees 50/50.
The tree in Ballerstein’s boulevard measures 26 inches at the stump.
The debate over the tree trimming started with Ballerstein contesting a $97.50 bill from the village for trimming four different trees.
When the board decided that the tree could not be trimmed like Ballerstein suggested, the resident said he would pay the contested bill.
Ballerstein said the village was setting him up to have to pay a large sum to replace the maple tree. “I am between a rock and a hard place,” he said.
Board members, however, were not sympathetic. “You are making a mountain out of a molehill,” said trustee Patty Schroeder-Schuett.
n The board voted to pay $20,706 to conservation departments in Wood, Taylor and Marathon counties as part of a Multi-Discharge Variance (MDV) that allows the village to discharge phosphorus beyond its limit. The departments will use the funds to try and control agricultural phosphorus run-off.
Village administrator Jeni Lopez said the village will not have to make the MDV payments once a reconstructed sewage treatment plant goes online.
The village is paying $53.01 per pound for 390 pounds of phosphorus it will discharge over its DNR limit.
n The village board voted to spend $10,000 to have Davies Water, Appleton, paint 80 fire hydrants this year. The village has 93 hydrants.
n Board members approved a $21,952 contract with the Edgar Fire Department for fire and ambulance service for the coming year. Last year’s charge was $18,643. The department increased its ambulance fee from $3 to $4 per person.
n Board members approved needed preliminary resolutions to borrow money from USDA for its sewage treatment plant project.
