Ken Jones from JPR updated the Bremen Town Council members last week about the progress made between the lone bidder of the proposed Wastewater Treatment Facility project.
JPR has been working with Thieneman officials on how to improve their bid as it came in on the high side of what the town council was anticipating to pay for the project. They came before the Bremen Town Council members at an earlier meeting with a different proposal for a treatment plant, but Jones and Wastewater Superintendent Matt Cunningham have agreed that the design that JPR originally proposed for the plant is the preferred design and will be working to fulfill that need.
With that, Jones admitted that after speaking with a third party estimator JPR’s preliminary estimate for the cost of the project was low, but not far off from what they originally thought. They will be working with Baker Tilly on crunching more numbers to determine where rates should be before finally deciding what they want to do when moving forward with the project.
He also said pieces of the project could be separately bid to bring down costs and they will continue to research all options and update the council during their next meeting in August.
The council is concerned about raising the rates to a level where it would put the town in an estimated rate bracket that is higher than the estimate in the state. They had been offering one of the lowest rates until it was determined that the aging wastewater plants should be replaced to improve operations and remedy deficiencies.
More discussions will be held in future meetings concerning the project.
