City lines to

be extended



By RUTH HEIDE

ALAMOSA — Awarding a sewer bid may not seem exciting to most people, but for more than 40 households without adequate sewer services in a portion of Alamosa, it’s an action long overdue.

“It’s taken a long time,” said City Councilor Charles Griego whose ward covers this part of town. He said one of the residents who brought this problem to the city’s attention has since passed away.

The Alamosa City Council this week awarded a more than $400,000 bid to local company RMS Utilities to extend city services to the Stockton Addition, a 62-acre area in southwest Alamosa that was annexed a few years ago with the prime objective of correcting its faulty, outdated water and sewer systems.

Residents in the 44 homes in that area have been operating with septic systems that were too close to each other and in some cases to their water systems.

The bid award this week means that the process to bring city sewer lines to this segment of the community can begin by the end of the year. This contract will bring the lines to the individual property lines but not up to the houses themselves.

Two other companies bid on the project that will be largely supported by a $300,000 community development block grant. Gardner Excavating bid $683,759, and SLV Earthmovers bid $599,810.

The city council awarded the bid to the low bidder RMS Utilities for $416,535. Alamosa Public Works Director Don Koskelin told the city council that the city had budgeted $124,000 out of city funds to merge with the $300,000 grant for this project, so the RMS Utilities bid is under the total budgeted amount.

When the city council first considered this project in 2001, its cost was estimated at $300,000 total, but costs have gone up since that time. Koskelin explained, for example, that the cost of oil affects a project like this because PVC pipe is made from oil.

Koskelin said the city started out in 2001 by planning to address this segment of the community’s water system and found severe problems with the sewer systems as well. The water table was too high and the lot sizes too small for the septic systems that existed in that area, he said. Septic systems were too close to wells in some cases, he added.

By 2003 the city had a detailed plan and a $280,000 cost estimate to put sewer lines in the street, put in a lift station, get power to the lift station and run sewer services up to the residents’ property lines, Koskelin said. The city then looked for funds and was able to apply for and receive a community development block grant from the Department of Local Affairs.

The grant came with some strings attached, however, Koskelin explained. It requires the city to pay Davis-Bacon wages, for example.

That requirement and the increased costs in fuel and PVC pipe drove the costs of the project up to the half-million-dollar range reflected in the bids the city council reviewed this week.

Koskelin said even though the low bidder was significantly below the other two bidders he felt comfortable with the company because the city has had successful dealings with RMS Utilities in the past.

He added that this company is an expert contractor in this kind of work, and when he talked with the bidder the bidder felt confident the company could complete the work within the amount budgeted. Koskelin said on any projects this company has completed for the city in the past the company has never come back with a change order based on a mistake they made.

He said he was very comfortable with the low bidder. “He is a local contractor. We have worked with him a long time. He’s performed well for us in the past.”

The bid award this week will still come short of replacing residents’ faulty sewer systems, Koskelin said. He said the sewer lines will still have to be connected to the households and the existing septic systems deactivated.

Koskelin said he did not include that phase of the project in this bid contract because he wanted to get this portion of the project begun yet this year so residents.

The contractor who was awarded the bid this week is only allowed to come within 5 feet of a housing foundation. Any closer and a plumbing license would be required, Koskelin said.

The city staff will have to talk with individual homeowners to find out where their sewer services lie within their property boundaries and determine if some additional plumbing may have to be completed under some of the homes before bringing the line in.

Koskelin said installing the lift station may have to be one of the first orders of business so the systems can be dewatered.

“We need to move forward as quickly as we can,” Koskelin said.