BROWNSTOWN

Brownstown officials are going to give it another go in seeking bids to begin work on a sewer system rehabilitation project.

Brent Siebenthal, president of Wessler Engineering in Indianapolis, recently received permission from Brownstown Town Council members to move forward with finding a company to do cleaning and video inspection for less than $84,000.

Last time, Siebenthal received two quotes that were out of the town’s budget. This time around, he said, he is aiming for quotes from four contractors to get competitive pricing.

“There is a lot of sewer rehab work that’s going on in major communities, and that’s why these contractors are so tied up,” Siebenthal said.

The quotes are due before the next town council meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. July 6.

Siebenthal said he and Scott Hunsucker, superintendent of Brownstown Wastewater Utility, agreed it was good to obtain quotes now and give the contractor until Nov. 1 to complete the work.

“Our hope is that with the extended time frame of about 120 days, that will give contractors plenty of time to schedule this and get some good pricing,” Siebenthal said.

The work involves sewer system cleaning and closed-circuit television inspections of the Priority 1 and 2 sewers in the town, which are ones that are known to have the biggest issues.

Cleaning and televising about 39,000 feet or 7½ miles of sanitary sewer will allow Wessler Engineering an opportunity to view the videos and determine which sewers are in the worst shape, Siebenthal said. Then, they can move forward with the preliminary engineering report preparation for financing purposes.

One modification to the cleaning and televising quote was taking out the protruding lateral removal. That move will save around $10,000, Siebenthal said.

“Pricing on that is fairly expensive,” he said. “That is something we can include in the rehab project itself, which you can get financed. If you have that work done now, then that would be considered maintenance, and so that would not be counted for as a local match.”

Sanitary system mapping also is being performed now, which Siebenthal said is about 95 percent complete. Once that is done, town officials will be able to update and reproduce the map at any time.

Wessler’s work, which includes time and materials, will not exceed $31,000.

The overall cost of the rehabilitation project is $4.1 million. The town plans to apply for a grant in the March application period, Hunsucker said.