Board approves purchase of new motor for Well No. 2

The Rib Lake Village Board at its March 11 meeting approved the purchase of a new motor for Well No. 2.

Trustee Vernell Van Hecker told the board when Municipal Well & Pump of Waupun does its inspection of Well No. 2 and if the motor is 40 years old like the motor on the other well, which both he and trustee Russ Bullis believed, it made sense for the village to replace the motor. He said by pre-approving the purchase of a new motor now, Municipal Well wouldn’t have to wait for the board to meet again to get the approval to purchase the motor and this would speed up the repair process and get Well No. 2 back in service sooner.

Van Hecker said the motor for Well No. 1 had cost $3,800 had thought the motor for Well No. 2 should cost around the same amount or might even be a little less expensive. Regardless, he added, a new motor would be more efficient and save the village money in the long run.

Village president Bill Schreiner asked if work on Well No. 1 was just about completed. Public Works director Tom Olson said Municipal Well has completed disinfecting the well and would take water samples March 12-13 for testing. He said if everything checks out, the well should be back in service on March 16.

Olson said when you spread the $20,000 it cost to inspect and repair Well No. 1 over the 41 years that the well has been inservice, it was a “cheap” expense.

Schreiner agreed, saying it was the first money that the village has had to spend on the well.

Trustee Cliff Mann added it was amazing the well had gone that long without needing any repairs.

The board also approved a request from Robert Rusch to add additional photographs to the Railroad History Project at the village hall.

Trustee Jack Buksa said he had met several times with Rusch and had a quote from Quick Print of $1,166.74 for the enlarged photo prints and explanation boards Rusch wants to add to the display. Buksa said due to the limited space available on the walls of the side hallway, some of the photos would be mounted on the walls in the community room.

Village Clerk Dawn Swenson said this was in addition to the $1,537.56 the board had initially approved last fall for the project, bringing the total cost of the project to $2,704.30.

MSA Professional Services submitted a written report to the board on the problem of freezing of the sludge storage tank. The report said MSA was working with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to see if the village could use contingency funds from the waste water treatment plant project to install an aluminum dome cover on the storage tank and that the DNR construction management engineer was supportive of adding the cover.

The report said MSA was also awaiting a legal opinion from the village’s attorney regarding the ability to modify the contract with Staab Construction to do the work. In a letter to the village and MSA, attorney RuthAnn Koch wrote that, based on her research, as long as the contract terms permit increases/additions in the work and that the additional work does not exceed 15% of the total value of the original contract [The estimated $75,000 cost would represent 1.7% of the total contract price], it was her opinion that the proposed work could be completed under the current contract between Staab and the village of Rib Lake via a change order and thus the village would not need to treat it as a separate public construction project that would have to comply with public bidding requirements.

The MSA report went on to say small modifications to the sludge storage tank discussed at the February meeting were being considered. The automating of the digested sludge transfer pumping routines has been completed. The installation of duckbill check valves on the sludge discharge pipe outlets and potentially adding diffused aeration under the telescopic valve were pending while awaiting cost estimates. The feasibility of adding some form of insulation to the exposed exterior concrete walls of the tank was also under consideration.

The report also said the village’s application for grant funding for the Landall Street/McComb Avenue storm sewer rehabilitation project through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Multimodal Local Supplement (MLS) program was not funded.

Pat Morrow from MSA told the board at its February meeting that 1,600 applications for projects totaling nearly $1.47 billion had been submitted seeking grants from a fund of $75 million and that Rib Lake’s chances of receiving a grant were “very slim.”

The report concluded by saying MSA would continue to explore other funding sources and options.